The Evanescence Files
by MidnightIndigo
Summary: At a new school, Rick Rodgers uncovers a dead body that suddenly vanishes before his eyes, a cult-like club in the school, and some unwilling help to figure it all out from his clever, beautiful, sarcastic yet unreadable new classmate—Kate Beckett. AU.
1. Chapter 1: The New Kid

**A/N: What? I never finish chaptered anything? Oh, yeah...too bad, I'm going to finish this. Probably within the week, the fangirling I'm doing right now. **

**This is AU, obviously, and it's pretty much solely the intro right now. I don't think Kate will come in for a chapter or two. Don't worry, though, she'll be there. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. If I did, there'd be way more than 6 seconds of YOU-KNOW-WHAT posted all over the internet.**

Rick strolled unhurriedly through the hallways of PS 38, his new school for the last three months of the year. The bell rang out loudly and the students around him began to run, but he meandered for a while. It was his first day. He could always plead that he couldn't find the classroom. He was good at both making up stories and acting (thanks in no small part to his mother's melodramatic ways) and thus wasn't too worried about passing himself off as the clueless new kid.

Besides, he'd never gone to public school; he had attended fancy private schools for his entire life. Everything was new to him.

The halls were lit with fluorescent lights every few yards, so there was a small patch of darkness between each, giving the place the air of a movie prison or some relatively similar place. Not exactly a cheerful image, but Rick thought it fit. It was poetic. The place where so many are held against their will for the general majority of their adolescent lives. It was practically juvie.

He glanced down to check out his schedule quickly. He didn't really need it, and he knew exactly where his classes were, but it was always reassuring to know that you knew something. Rick didn't let anyone know it, but he was most self-conscious about looking stupid. Not acting stupid, but forgetting something in front of the class that the teacher had just said or not knowing what had been asked of him. He folded the paper in his hand, then unfolded it, then folded it again.

He bypassed going to his locker, as he would most likely be exempt on the first day for having all of his supplies anyways (which he did, but his teachers didn't need to know that). Approaching the door of his new history class, he rapped confidently on the peeling red paint, then opened the door and slid inside.

"Hello, there, Mr. Rodgers, nice of you to join us," the teacher called from her podium. She had rather large glasses, thin lips, and a rather enormous nose. "Please sit beside Ms. Queller, in that seat right there?"

"Sure thing, Ms..." he pretended to check the schedule, "Ms. Delana. It's a pleasure to meet you." He sauntered to his new desk like an Olympian walks to his first metal platform. "And it's a pleasure to meet you too, Ms. Queller," he said in a low voice.

She smiled brightly at him and played with her long blond hair. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Maddie."

He grinned back. "I'm Rick." He shook her hand. "So do you know people around here?"

She laughed and informed him, "I know _everyone _around here."

**A/N: Not entirely sure whether I should hug ABC or slap them. Have y'all seen the newest sneak peek? It's on the front page of TVLine if you don't mind spoilers. If you haven't escaped them, go ahead and watch it. If you have...well, you must not have been reading many fanfiction stories for the past month. :D **

**Don't forget to review! Always appreciated, that is. 3**


	2. Chapter 2: Wheres Kate?

**A/N: Here's chapter two! Hope you enjoy it. A little more exposition, then the story begins. :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. Isn't it sad?  
**

The bell rang as they were packing up their books. "I can introduce you to everyone," Maddie grinned at Rick.

He smiled back. "That sounds great." They walked out into the hallway, bustling with throngs of students trying to get to their lockers or ducking out of other classrooms. "So where do you all hangout?"

"Around the corner from the gym," she replied. "A lot of the guys play basketball or whatever, and they like to talk to us too. We're not allowed in the gym during their practices, and a lot of the time they have short, impromptu practice during breaks or lunch or free period. Plus it smells pretty bad in the gym anyways." She laughed, stopping at a locker to grab her next class' books. "Follow me!"

He strolled along behind her. "Sure thing. Not like I have any other pretty girls to follow." He gave her a quirky smile.

"Thanks, Rick." She latched arms with him and pulled him through the hall. Ahead of them a group of kids were messing around near a blank stretch of wall. Benches lined both sides of this section, and girls sat watching the guys hitting each other with their backpacks.

Maddie snorted. "Wow, you guys are cool," she called, approaching. "Backpack fights. What's that, second grade?"

"Who's this dude?" one guy called. He was holding his bag like a baseball bat, ready to whack another, who was using his own backpack as a shield.

"Everybody, this is Rick, he got kicked out of..." she turned to him. "Where'd you get kicked out of, anyways?"

Rick shrugged. "Does it matter? Private school in Queens. I'm not going to go back, so I just don't really dwell on it."

"See, he's already smarter than all of you put together," one girl hooted, sending the other girls into giggles.

"I beg to differ." The only boy who wasn't fighting sat on the ground against the opposite wall with his binder perched on his knees. "I like to think I'm considerably smart."

"Okay, well, everyone but Hunter," Maddie grinned. "Rick, this is Jenny, Ana, Liz, Hunter, and the morons in the middle are Bobby, Austin, Mike, and Chris." She frowned. "Wait, where's Kate? I didn't see her this morning."

"We didn't see you this morning, either, we thought you two had ditched to go shopping or something," Hunter replied.

"Sorry if my alarm clock didn't wake me up," she snapped. "I went to sleep at four or something last night, I was watching TV for, like, hours."

Bobby took advantage of the distraction and hit Mike with a loud thwack!, effectively flattening him to the ground. "Aw come on, Mads. You can tell us. Who were you with?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Shut up, stupid. You don't have a clue where Kate is?"

"Not even a little bit."

"Hmm. Maybe she's sick. She had a headache all day yesterday, so she's probably just not feeling well."

"Okay, okay..." Chris grinned, chucking his backpack into the corner. "What was she doing last night?"

The boys laughed uproariously. "Don't you have practice?" snapped Liz, a short but athletic-looking girl with long dark hair and really tanned skin.

"No," Chris shrugged. He was about a head taller than Rick, who wasn't short to begin with, and had short blond hair. He sat down beside Hunter, who seemed to be the resident academic kid, his dark head bowed over his work. Rick couldn't tell if he was doing homework that was due soon or if he was getting ahead.

"So Rick," Ana called. She was a redhead with a smattering of freckles across her nose. "Where do you live?"

"Upper East side," he replied easily. He connected with people naturally.

"Where do you think he lives, stupid?" Chris mocked. "He has to live somewhere around here."

A bell rang. "Ah, shoot," Jenny muttered. "I have to go to my locker still. See ya, guys!" The small blondie ran off, followed by Mike and Chris, who had English on the other side of the school.

"I should go, I have to go find my classroom," Rick announced. "Does anyone have Chemistry with Jackson?"

"Well, my friend Kate does, but she's not here today, apparently," Maddie said. "None of us have chem this period."

"Alright, it's all good. See you later. Will you guys be here at lunch?"

"Yep, just come on over," Maddie grinned. "See you later, Rick!"

He walked away, once again alone in the sea of people. The final warning bell rang as he turned the corner into the corridor where his class was.

He didn't see the person who barreled into him, other than a head of long dark hair, before both of them shouted in shock as they collided and fell.

"Oh my god, where are you going?" the girl snapped. "Honestly, jeez, watch it!"

"Sorry," he said smoothly, helping her stand and pick up her books. "Where are you going?"

"Chemistry," she snapped, trying to get around him.

"With Ms. Jackson?" She nodded. "Oh, excellent! Me too! I'm new, I'm Rick."

"Kate," she said sullenly. "And you were going the wrong way. It's this way."

**A/N: Don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3: What Is Wrong With You?

**A/N: I like this chapter, just because it's funny when Kate Beckett is annoyed. It's fun to write, as well, so I hope it's equally as fun to read. It is kind of short, but all the chapters for this story seem to be. I shall try to make them longer. **

**I got an anonymous completely unsigned review asking for the link to the TVLine article, but unfortunately I can't put links in stories and I don't know how to contact you! I think if you go to tvline dot com it'll be on the front. Sorry if you can't find it! I really hope you do, it's preeeettty great. :D**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Castle. I seriously wish I did though. Anybody else wish they were Andrew Marlowe right now or something? Or, yanno, any one of the actors or crew members or various producers/writers. **

Rick and Kate slipped into class a minute late. Ms. Jackson didn't seem too mad, particularly when Rick gave her a smile and said, "Sorry, Kate was just helping me find the classroom. She would've been right on time, it's my fault."

"Okay, Mr. Rodgers, would you care to take a seat beside Ms. Beckett?"

His face lit up when he realized that she was referring to Kate and slid into the seat beside her.

"When I need your help getting out of a tardy, I will ask for it," she muttered under her breath. Then her voice softened, and she said, "But thanks."

He smiled. "You're welcome." He leaned over her shoulder at what she doing. "What are you learning, anyways?" She showed him the page in the book, exhaling exasperatedly when he just stared at her expectantly.

"Look, just ask Ms. Jackson," she said. "I suck at this stuff, I can't explain it for my life."

"Fine," he shrugged. "Maddie was looking for you earlier."

She looked up at him in surprise. "You know Maddie?"

"Yeah, she was in my world history class last period," he shrugged. "She introduced me to all your friends."

She rolled her eyes and looked back at her book. Maddie wasn't long for this world, she thought to herself. "Great."

"You know, I don't know why you're being so hostile," he said, pouting. "You just met me."

She didn't know why either. There was just something about Rick Rodgers that really annoyed her. They'd been told a new kid was coming, and Maddie had discovered that he'd been kicked out of his old school, and Kate usually went for bad boys, but this guy just really irritated her. She just sighed and ignored him. He shrugged and leaned back in his chair, the front two feet off the ground and hands behind his head.

She stared at him over her shoulder. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "What is wrong with you?"

"Oh, nothing. But if you're not going to share your book I have nothing to do, so..." He began to twiddle his thumbs, displaying them just barely over his gelled brown hair.

She narrowed her eyes at him, but he just met her challenging gaze with a smile. Of all the times for Ms. Jackson to not notice something... Finally she gave in. "Fine, here."

"Thank you," he said smugly, putting all four chair legs on the ground and leaning on his hand to look at her textbook.

She almost growled. If she was stuck with him for the semester, she might end up murdering him.

To her chagrin, when the class ended he followed her closely down the hallway, right on her heels. Finally she spun and glared at him. "Is there a particular reason why you're following me?"

He shrugged. "Maddie told me I could hang out with you guys. Not like I know anyone else around here."

She almost murdered him right then. Forget the end of the semester.

"Look, Rick, I'm going to my locker first, so unless you want to follow me there..."

"I don't mind," he smiled cheerily. He was either oblivious to her cold stare or he was really good at ignoring it. "I don't really know quite how to get there anyways."

She turned again and set off without another word. He continued after her, much slower and more casual. He surveyed the hallways like he was debating buying the place, and remarked to Kate, "The ceiling looks like the plaster could crumble if you touched it. They should really fix that."

She once again ignored him as she opened her locker and stuffed her chemistry stuff inside. She bent over to grab her books for English and stood suddenly, surprising him. He jumped back onto a freshman's foot and the kid yelped as she shot both of them a cold look. Rick looked at the kid, who stared reproachfully, and said, "She's in some sort of bad mood, don't take it personally," and hurried after her.

She approached the kids in the corridor where Rick had been earlier. "Hey, guys," she grinned, and did the secret handshake with Maddie. "Hey, Becks!" Maddie grinned. "We were beginning to think you'd ditched."

"No, my mom's out of town for work and my dad had the day off, so no one came to wake me up." Her shadow approached, panting slightly at keeping up with her, and her grin turned to a raised eyebrow as she jerked her head back at him, tossing her hair, and asked, "What's up with him?"

"He's the new kid, obviously," Maddie grinned. "Isn't he great?"

Kate turned to look at him. He'd sat down and was playing thumb wars with Ana, who had eagerly dropped her sandwich to participate. "Yeah," she muttered with a sigh, "just great."

**A/N: Admittedly...there's a bit more exposition. But not too much, I promise. I'll get to the body soon. xD**

**Remember to review! The button needs some love! :)**


	4. Chapter 4: Speaking of Which

**A/N: These chapters have ended up as mainly dialogue, which I kind of like because it's sort of how the show is written; no real monologues, mainly verbal sparring. But I know this is a different medium, so I'm working on that in later chapters, haha. Hope you like it regardless. **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Castle! And it's still a bummer. xD  
**

The rest of the day Rick seemed to be everywhere Kate went, which was disconcerting and a little annoying. She ran into him for the third time between classes and almost screamed out loud. Instead she just took a deep breath and said, "I swear you're stalking me."

"I'm just wandering," he insisted, smiling jovially. His hands were buried deep in the pockets of his jeans. "I don't plan on running into nice girls such as yourself. It just happens."

"Yeah, well, keep 'happening' to run into me and we'll see how nice I am," she muttered under her breath. His grin only widened as she ducked around him to get to her Russian class.

After school, he'd set off one way and she was walking the other with Maddie. "Oh my god," she snapped as soon as they were out of earshot of everyone else, "this is ridiculous! I swear, he just annoys me to no end!"

"You've only known him for a day," Maddie said reasonably. "I'm sure you'll like him once you get to know him."

"If I spend any more time trying to get to know him I'm going to puke all over his shoes," Kate snapped. "Honestly, I know it's only been like five hours since I met the guy. But he's just so annoying!"

"I dunno, I think he's pretty cool," Maddie smirked. "Plus he's pretty cute."

Kate pretended to look at her in shock. "Say Madison Queller hasn't fallen in love?" It was a running joke that Maddie didn't go on second dates.

"Very funny," Maddie snorted, pushing her a little. Kate grinned and pushed her back with her shoulder. "I don't know why you don't like him so much. He's not mean. He's not a freak. He's not a goody-two-shoes, which I know you can't stand. So what is it? There's got to be something."

"I don't know, I guess I just..." She thought about when he'd gotten her out of being marked late. "He's just too cocky."

"Too cocky." Maddie stared at her in disbelief. "You're kidding me. Compared to some of the other guys we've dated, Rick is an absolute kitten. He will do anything for you. It's been six hours since I met him and I already know that if someone asks something of him, he'll do it. Most guys will not listen to you, no matter what."

"Fair enough," Kate shrugged. "Hey, let's go to that little shop," she said, pointing to a small, little-known teen clothing store. Maddie nodded and they took off running.

* * *

"I don't get it," Rick poured to his mother late that night, as he mixed a drink. Even though he was five years under drinking age, he could've been a bartender, thanks to his mom. "She just really does not like me. Like, what's up with that?"

"I don't know," Martha said, taking the offered drink. "thank you, Richard, this is marvelous. Better than I could get downtown."

He grinned. "I do know how to mix 'em, don't I? But it's like from the moment I met her, she's found everything I do or say annoying. Everyone else seems to like me—heck, I'm pretty sure this one chick, Madison, would willingly say she loves me—but not this girl, Kate."

"Give her time," Martha advised him. She raised her glass to him in a silent toast. "I'm sure she'll come around."

"Thank you, Mother," he said, and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm going to bed. Good night. Enjoy your drink!"

"Good night, darling," she replied. "I will!"

He ran up the stairs into his room and shut the door, grabbing his toothbrush and starting to get ready for bed. As soon as he slipped under his covers and turned off the lights, he lay stiff and still, staring straight up at the ceiling. He really wanted to know why that girl didn't like him. It was irritating him so much, but he didn't know why it bothered him so bad. Why couldn't he settle for nine out of ten?

Because, whispered an unwelcome voice in his head, that one person who doesn't like you is going to be miserable the entire time. All because of you.

Rick Rodgers liked to think he was a pretty confident person. And he was. Most people merely put up the illusion of being self-secured, but for the most part he actually was pretty satisfied with himself (which had been described as cocky or self-absorbed rather than confident in the past, but it had been his ex-girlfriend right after he'd broken up with her, so it didn't count) but it was the nights when he couldn't fall asleep that he felt like just one person out of billions. When he thought about everything that was wrong with himself. When his mind strayed to the mystery that was his father, even when all his thoughts were focused on something else. Like tonight. The only thing he was thinking about was Kate, and why she was so irritable, and he still strayed to that one topic that no amount of school and education could teach him.

Rick didn't cry over his dad. He never had and never would. But that didn't mean he couldn't wonder.

**A/N: This ended weird. I know. It will have an effect later. Trust me. And also, review! Criticism is very much loved. Flames, while loved, will be put out, because I love paper more. xD**

**Thanks for reading!  
**


	5. Chapter 5: Not A Stalker At All

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated since Wednesday. I had to make a promise that I wouldn't go on fanfiction until my research paper was done, haha. And I did it, and now it's done, and I incredibly actually have time to type fanfiction, so here you go! Hope you like it. :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. But after that episode, I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish I did. ;D  
**

Today Rick had his books all together and knew where his classes were—he knew that he couldn't use the excuse of not knowing where his classes to pass off on a tardy. And he was considerably enjoying himself at the moment. He didn't want to have to move schools again; despite himself, he was starting to like PS 38.

"Hello, Ms. Jackson," he said as he walked into English five minutes early. "Good to see you this morning."

"Hello, Rick," she smiled, glancing at him over her small glasses and returning to grading papers.

Rick looked around the room and spotted exactly who he wanted to see. He grinned and sauntered over to his desk. "Hello, there, Kate."

She didn't bother setting her pen down or stopping what she was working on—it looked like math homework. Oh, she was so hiding from him. "Hi, Rick. How come you're here early? Shouldn't you be hanging out with Maddie?"

"Shouldn't you?" he asked pointedly. "She's your best friend. I met her yesterday. You've known her since third grade."

Now she looked up. "How did you know that?"

"Same way as I knew you were here," he shrugged. "Maddie told me. She said you said you had to do homework or something."

"Yeah, so stop bugging me," she snapped. "I'm working."

"But you don't have math until last period," he added.

She gaped at him. "How did you know that?" she asked, flabbergasted.

"I memorized your schedule, obviously," he said smugly.

"That's not creepy at all," she muttered.

"But more to the point: are you avoiding me?"

She glared at him. "Why would I do that?"

"You know, I've been thinking about that, and I can't figure it out either. So why would you do that?"

Ms. Jackson slammed her pencil against the desk. "Honestly, did you two know each other before Rick came here?"

"No," they said together, and glared at each other some more.

"Well, Rick, maybe you should go get a drink or something, because Kate is obviously trying to finish homework." Rick opened his mouth to protest, but she just pointed to the door and raised her eyebrow. He sighed but left the room.

"Thanks," Kate sighed, continuing to work on homework.

"No problem," the teacher replied, already getting back to work.

* * *

"Come on, let's ditch him."

"Why would we do that?"

"Because he's annoying as-"

"Tell me you don't like him."

"I don't like him!"

"You're such a liar, Kate Beckett."

"You obviously don't know me well enough!"

Maddie didn't retort but Kate saw the hurt in her eyes and immediately regretted saying that. "Look, I didn't mean-"

"If there's one person in the world who knows you, it's me," Maddie informed her. "And I guarantee that some part of you really likes him. And that's why you're trying so hard to hate him."

"Are you implying something?" Kate asked her, raising her eyebrows warningly.

Maddie smiled sweetly. "Yes I am. Now come on."

She pulled Kate along by her arm, leaving Kate somewhat bemused.

"I am so over Tanner!" she finally shouted

"Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart," Maddie smirked.

* * *

"So who's Tanner?"

"OH my god, how much of a stalker are you?" Kate snapped, dropping her pencil as he snuck up behind her in the library. The librarian shushed her irritably. "Sorry!" she called with a wince. She twisted in her seat. "Honestly, have you been following me or something?"

"Nah, I just hear things through the grapevine." There was a twinkle in his eyes that should've warned her, but she kept going.

"What grapevine? What did you hear?"

"Well, I've learned not to trust things until I hear them from an official source, so you tell me: who's Tanner?"

"Tanner is no one."

"He doesn't happen to be your ex-boyfriend of a year who dumped you last month?"

She glared at him, and Rick wondered if she was just permanently set on annoyed, for the number of times she'd done that. "I dumped him, actually."

"Now, that's the one piece of information that I don't ever believe from the source," he mused. "Even I'm guilty of pulling that switch."

"Because your record's so squeaky clean," she retorted, but didn't deny the implied accusation. "And I don't see anything more to tell."

"Nothing?"

"What more do you want? And why the heck do you care?" she hissed.

"Do you want to go out with me?" he asked suddenly.

"Wha-what?" She was speechless for a moment. "No!"

"Why not?" he pouted.

"Because!" She picked up her backpack and her books off the table and stormed off to another part of the library, already expecting him to follow. To her surprise, he didn't.

**A/N: Don't forget to review! This chapter was, like the others, short, sorry about that, but the next two are definitely longer, and they've been written. They actually get into the story. They'll be up soon, I promise!**

**How about that Knockdown? ;) The song at the end, called Rise by The Frames, is absolutely beautiful. I bought both it and the episode and have been enjoying myself very much since last night. :D**


	6. Chapter 6: Future Past

**A/N: Two updates in one day? No way! **

**I'm here to tell you: YES WAY. **

**I felt like I wanted to add this chapter today since it's been stuck in exposition forever and this is the beginning of the story itself. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. I feel like this is getting redundant. Ah well. **

It was weird, Kate thought, sitting on the bench outside of the gym at lunch and watching Rick talk with her friends. He seemed to fit in with them like he belonged there—like he'd been with them forever. She still couldn't figure out why he bugged her so much.

"I bet I can balance a spoon on my nose longer than you!" Rick challenged Chris.

"Oh, you're on!" Chris replied.

Mike moderated the competition. Chris' spoon immediately dropped, but Rick stood there for three minutes, completely still and cross-eyed, before Bobby knocked it off his nose.

"Admiring his many array of talents?" Kate jumped and Maddie grinned smugly, having slid onto the bench beside her without her noticing. "Told you you're a liar. I thought you were studying?" She snorted. "Distracted by the testosterone?"

"I swear, you make everything more than it is," Kate grinned.

"Hey, guys, you have to be at practice right now," Maddie called patronizingly, apparently ignoring Kate.

The boys jogged into the gym, grumbling, and Rick sat down beside Maddie. "What're you two doing?" he wondered.

"Becks is studying," Maddie said instantly. "Some big math test next period."

"Fun. I'm pretty bad at math; anything you get has to be better than my scores." He laughed. "However, I am absolutely amazing at English and history, so that makes up for my failure at math and science."

"Well, I'm pretty good at those," Maddie smiled cheerily. "But I suck at English and history. Hey! Maybe we could help each other!"

"That'd be great!" Rick replied warmly. "How about you, Kate? What are you good at?"

"She's good at _everything_," Maddie said, rolling her eyes. "There is nothing Becks _isn't_ good at."

"Only because I actually study," Kate teased her.

"Well, then, maybe she should come along, we need to actually study," Rick said, smiling at her endearingly. She focused very hard on her textbook.

"Yeah, Becks! You could totally help us. I mean, you're like a genius!"

"I am not," Kate replied modestly. "I'm just average."

"Okay, so maybe you're not one of those freaky genius people, but you're definitely smart."

"Whatever," Kate shrugged, but she was grinning.

"So how about after school we can all go to the library. Like, the public library, not the school library—there is waaaay too much drama after school for my taste. Honestly, it's ridiculous."

"I can do that," Rick nodded. "My mom won't be home until seven, so I'm good."

"Fine, I'll come," Kate sighed.

"Great! I'll meet you guys by the east entrance then?"

"Sure." The bell rang, and Kate shoved her books into her bag and stalked off.

"Happiest I've ever seen her," Rick commented.

* * *

Five minutes after the bell ran, Rick ran down the east stairs to find Kate and Maddie waiting for him at the bottom.

"Sorry I'm late," he said as they started off down the street.

"It's all good," Maddie replied. "She was all for leaving you though."

Kate rolled her eyes and grinned but didn't reply.

"Why are we going this way anyways?" Rick asked as they turned into an alley behind the school. "It's creepy in here."

"Aw, is Ricky afraid?" Kate said teasingly.

"See that?" Rick asked Maddie, nodding towards Kate. "I told you. She's way happier today."

"We're going this way because it's a short cut," Maddie answered, ignoring their argument. "Plus there aren't as many lights and crowds to get through."

"Nope, just creepy stalkers, kidnappers, and rapists" Rick said, looking around as if he expected all of the above to jump out of the trash on either side.

"Wow, you're jittery!" Maddie laughed

He pretended to pout. "Everybody's ganging up on the new kid." He continued to glance around. "We're still in New York, you know. Do you know how many homicides and abductions are reported every year just in the city? Hundreds. And most of them are never solved."

"That's so stupid," Kate said. "How would you feel if someone you loved was killed and you couldn't do anything about it and the police couldn't find the killer?"

"Like what if it was your mom?" Rick nodded, thinking about it. "They'd put me in social services."

"What about your dad?" Maddie asked.

He shrugged. "My mother doesn't know who my dad is," he said with a slight smirk.

"Ah," Maddie grinned.

"If my mom died..." Kate shivered, pausing. "If my mom died, I'd die." Maddie smiled at her reassuringly, putting an arm around her shoulders to comfort her from the thought, and Kate smiled back. "But yeah, if I was a cop, I wouldn't close a case until I found the killer. And not someone to pin it on. The actual killer," she continued.

"See, you'd be a good cop," Rick nodded.

They walked in silence for a while, each contemplating a different horror.

"Hey!" Rick exclaimed suddenly. "Well that's just rude."

Kate and Maddie glanced at each other in exasperation. "Someone dumped their trash in the middle of the alley. How would you like it if you couldn't drive into your garage?"

"I guess it's a little annoying," Maddie shrugged. "But it just looks like a pile of clothes."

"Ex," Rick complained, his face contorting. "Even worse, it looks like they're dripping something. That's _disgusting_."

"Wait," Kate said instinctively, holding out a hand to stop them. She'd been focused on the trash in question, frowning at it as they talked. "That's not trash." She stepped towards it carefully, making sure not to step in the weird dark-colored liquid. She crouched down to look at it, then looked back at Rick and Maddie in horror. "It's a body."

**A/N: Yay, a body! Finally! Aren't you excited? According to Alexis Castle: "Murder will make you feel better." So I hope you liked this. As always, please review! :)**


	7. Chapter 7: Detective Kate Beckett

**A/N: I almost uploaded this last night, but I thought that three updates in one night was just too much. Besides, I need some time to write the next few chapters! :)**

**Disclaimer: Really, can we just accept that I don't own Castle? Okay? Okay. Moving on. I henceforth disclaim for the rest of the story. **

"That's either really freaky or really cool!" Rick exclaimed quickly. He looked back and forth between the girls, who were once again exasperated. "Oh, freaky. Sorry, it really doesn't have as much effect when I don't know the person..."

"I do." Kate looked terrified for a moment. "It's Melanie Cross, she's in my English class. She was here _yesterday_. We just thought she'd ditched today."

"Wait, isn't she the one who always wears black and a ton of makeup and looks like either a druggie or a rock star?" Maddie asked.

Kate gave her a look, like, _Really? Over the dead body?_

"Well, it's true. I wasn't implying anything. I talked to her last week. She's really nice!"

"Or, um, was," Rick interjected awkwardly.

Kate stood quickly and started running back down the alley. "We need to call the police!"

They ran after her towards the nearest pay phone. The first one they saw was a half block away. Kate had already slid in a dime and dialed nine-one-one when they got there.

"Hello, my name is Kate Beckett, there's a body here, I'm-"

"How old are you?"

Her jaw dropped. "I'm—I'm sixteen," she stammered. "I don't know why that matters, but you need to get down here," she rattled off the street names. "Please, hurry, there's a body of a girl, she's in my class and she's a sophomore at PS 38."

"How was this body killed?" The operator sounded bored.

"I don't know, it was super bloody and she had a bunch of super huge clothes on so you couldn't really tell if she'd been shot or stabbed or what—could you just send someone down here, please?" She hung up.

"Incompetent police?" Maddie asked sympathetically.

Kate shook her head angrily.

Four minutes later, two cars pulled up. "Alright, where's this body?" a detective asked.

The three teens were sitting on the curb waiting. Kate pointed down the alley. The detective bent down to their eye level as his colleagues ran down to find Melanie. The fact that the kids had just found a dead body had finally sunk in. Maddie's mascara had smeared on her face with tears, and Rick stared hollowly at the asphalt on the street. Kate was more responsive; she'd been sitting with her head in her hands, but looked up when the detective talked to them. There was a hard look in her eye and she didn't smile back at the man.

"I'm Detective Harding," he said, holding out his hand. Kate just glared at him and wrapped her arms around her knees. The hand was quickly withdrawn.

"Katherine Beckett," she replied sharply.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

"Who's 'us'?" Kate snapped. Before he could go into shock at her cheek to a police officer, she continued. "We were walking to the library. Maddie wanted to avoid stoplights so we took the back alleys, and there was this thing in the middle. Rick thought it was trash, but then we realized it was a body." Now she swallowed. "Her name's Melanie Cross. I don't know her that well, but she was in one of my classes."

"Okay, thank you, Miss Beckett." He listened to the crackling of his radio and frowned. "What?" he asked the person on the other end. More static, and his frown deepened as he focused on Kate. She frowned back, puzzled at his expression.

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah," he sighed, like _I should've known_ "They say there's nothing there."

"What?" Rick exclaimed, now looking at him.

"I need you three to stand up," Harding said gruffly. They complied, confused. "Katherine, could you come with me? You two wait by the car." Kate looked at Maddie and Rick pointedly and they stumbled towards the cop car. She followed the detective down the alley.

"Where was she?" he asked.

She looked around. The trash cans were still in the same place, but now there was a large wet patch in the middle of the ground, like an overnight dew puddle that hadn't completely dried yet.

"Right there," she said, gaping. "There was a _pool of blood_ on the ground, how can it just be gone?"

"Alright Miss Beckett. Have you taken any medication or ingested any drugs today?"

"What? No!"

"Have you been given any food, by a friend or someone at school or on the street?"

"No!"

"Have you-"

"Do I seem high or drunk to you?" she asked incredulously. "I can walk straight, I'm not slurring, I'm talking comprehensibly, there is no reason to believe that I'm on anything!"

"You were hallucinating dead bodies, Miss Beckett," he reminded her patronizingly.

"What about Maddie and Rick? Did we all 'hallucinate' the same thing?"

"Then did you call the NYPD to report a false homicide? Because that's also illegal."

"There was a body here seven minutes ago!" she shouted.

"I'm sorry, but it's not here anymore." He scrutinized her. She seemed to be in a state of shock at the moment. "Look, maybe you should go home. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt because you seem rational for the most part and you don't seem to be trying to waste my time. Good-bye, Miss Beckett."

She watched helplessly as he walked away, followed by the other cops. They weren't even going to do anything.

Kat turned and kicked a trash can, pain shooting up her foot, but she didn't notice.

"What just happened?"

She looked towards Rick and Maddie, who'd walked past the police to catch up with her.

"The body's gone," she snapped. "They don't believe she was ever here."

"See? This is what we were talking about! Stupid police are idiots!" Rick raged.

"What do we do now?" Maddie asked. She looked horrible. She was shivering and her makeup was completely destroyed. Her eyes were red and her face was wet.

Kate and Rick glanced at each other. They might've been at odds most of the time, but seeing their friend like that put them on the same side.

"We'll figure it out," Rick said.

"We can do it ourselves," Kate added. "I mean, we don't have badges-"

"But we do have adorably adorable faces to help us," Rick interrupted.

Kate looked at him in exasperation, but Maddie didn't seem to notice. "How do we do that?"

"I...don't know yet," Rick said with a wince, beginning to nod. "We have to figure out what she was doing, where she was going, what she was like, who she might've been with."

"What if it wasn't a robbery?" Maddie wondered.

"It wasn't." Rick and Kate said together. they frowned at each other, but Maddie just sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

"Oh, god, I need a sink and a mirror," she said, smiling weakly. "Why not, detectives?"

"Ooh," Rick gasped. "Detective Rodgers. I like it."

Kate rolled her eyes. "First of all, she wouldn't be in an alley during school for no good reason. And she wasn't at school, so it had to have happened during school. Plus, her eyes were closed and she didn't look like she'd been scared when she died, so either she wanted to die—and she didn't kill herself, and I'll tell you why after—or the killer closed her eyes, meaning he probably knew her. And it wasn't a suicide because if you're going to kill yourself you'll use either drugs or a gun to the head, because it's quick and painless." The other two stared at her. "My psych teacher is really morbid," she explained.

"Maybe her best friend was jealous of her boyfriend!" Rick suggested. "Oh! Or maybe her boyfriend was violent and abusive!"

"Did she even have a boyfriend?" Maddie asked.

"According to him, yeah," Kate mocked him scathingly. "Maybe we should figure out who her friends are and _talk_ to them before we make any assumptions."

"Ouch," Rick winced, wounded.

"Well, we can't get to anyone right now," Maddie reasoned. She seemed to have recovered from the shock. "I think we should go home, then tomorrow we'll regroup. Hey, can we go around school saying we're detectives?"

"Yeah!" Rick exclaimed. "How cool would that be?"

"A) We'd get beat up," Kate snorted. "B) It sounds like we're about five, and C) I think we need to be a little more subtle about our 'investigation' than the police." She started walking towards the street. "Plus, it's sort of illegal to impersonate a police officer."

Maddie and Rick ran to catch up. "But for the record, that'd be super cool, it we actually were cops. _Detective Queller._" She tried out the title, thinking, then added, "Though I personally really like the sound of Detective Beckett."

"Hmm," Kate mused. "Detective Kate Beckett. I guess. It's just sort of weird." She shrugged. "But nah, I can't really see myself as a cop."

"Maybe not," Rick agreed. "Maybe a model."

Both girls rolled their eyes at him.

"But if my family member died," Rick said, more serious now, "and you were a cop, I'd want you on the case. You'd make a much better detective than that Harding guy." They reached the street and he stopped to say good-bye. "I'm going this way. See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow," Maddie nodded. Kate didn't reply; she was too lost in thought.

Rick turned and walked away.

**A/N: Longer? Yes? Hope you liked it, this chapter was particularly fun for me to write. Remember to review! **


	8. Chapter 8: Discussions

**A/N: Sorry this is short guys, and that it's been like a week and a half. I've been busy. Plus I never get on the computer to type up and upload what I've written (I feel like this is the same for every chapter I upload...). But there will be more soon. :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. I wish. **

Maddie dialed Kate's number quickly.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Beckett she said, cheerier than she felt. "How are you?"

"I'm wonderful, Maddie, how are you? How's your mom?"

"I'm good, my mom's good too."

"Great. Do you want to talk to Kate?"

"Yes, please. Thanks, Mrs. Beckett."

"You're welcome, Maddie. Nice talking to you."

"Nice talking to you too!"

Mrs. Beckett covered the receiver and yelled up the stairs. "Kate! Maddie's on the phone!"

"Okay, coming!" There was a thundering sound as Kate ran out of her room and hurtled down the stairs to get the phone. She grabbed it out of her mom's hand, slightly breathless.

"Thanks, Mom," she said, and pressed the phone to her cheek. "Hello?"

"Hey, we need to talk. About Melanie, and Rick."

Mrs. Beckett was cooking pasta sauce on the stove. Kate glanced at her mother. "Do you mind?"

Mrs. Beckett raised her hands, holding up and red wooden spoon. Kate just managed to hold in a cringe, thinking about the blood. "Do you want burnt meat sauce?"

Kate wrinkled her nose. "No," she admitted, and returned to her call. "Okay, what's to say?"

"About Melanie? According to last year's yearbook, almost nothing. There's barely one picture of her. But about Rick? A lot."

Kate glanced toward the bookshelf in the family room, twenty feet away. "About number one, hold on, I'll grab my yearbook. Number two comes later."

Maddie laughed. "Oh, I love your mom."

"Yeah, me too," Kate snorted. "But maybe a little less when she tries to listen in on my conversations."

"Well now I need to listen," Mrs. Beckett chuckled.

Kate left the phone on the counter to retrieve her yearbook and hurried back, sitting at one of the stools. She began to flip through it, holding the phone to her ear with her left hand. "Well, where's the picture?"

"It's just her, it's the standard school picture."

Kate wrinkled her nose. "There's not one other picture? No other clubs or anything? Nothing?"

"Not that I found."

"There's got to be something. I'll keep looking."

"Okay, well, while you do that, tell me now: do you like Rick? Not, like, like-like, like, like his personality."

Kate facepalmed. "You just used the word 'like' literally five times in a row. And I don't know. He just...annoys me for no good reason. I don't know why, because it's not like he tries to be annoying. Well, for the most part."

"Who's he?" Mrs. Beckett asked, grinning.

"Mom!" Kate groaned.

"Well, if he's anything like Tanner..."

"Mom! He's nothing like Tanner! His name is Rick Rodgers and he just got here. He's cool, don't worry."

"Not to mention he's normal," Maddie added.

"Well, okay, I wouldn't go that far," Kate snorted. "He got kicked out of some private school uptown. He's, like, a juvenile delinquent." She frowned. "What did he do anyways?"

"You know, I don't actually know," Maddie replied. "He never said."

"Nice," Mrs. Beckett said. "I'll be sure to tell your father you're dating a juvenile delinquent. He'll get out his shotgun for sure."

"Dad doesn't have a shotgun," Kate reminded her. "And I'm not dating him. I don't even like him. Why don't you and Maddie go discuss my love life without me over coffee sometimes?"

"Anyways, he's really not that bad. He's super nice and he isn't a freak," Maddie said. "The same can't be said for some of your other boyfriends."

"Watch it," Kate joked. "Freaks are people too."

"Yeah, sure. We'll take your word for it. Anyways, he doesn't seem psychotic. He can't have done anything that bad, I mean, private school? It is not that hard to get yourself kicked out."

"Yeah, yeah. I don't like him."

"Keep telling yourself that, love."

Kate ignored her, continuing to flip through the book. She passed through the extracurricular sections, then paused, about to turn the page, and frowned. "The play," she muttered. She started tapping the paper excitedly. "Maddie, she was in the play! She's a drama geek!"

"Now, now, we don't call them geeks," Maddie grinned. "They are thespians."

"Sure," Kate said, rolling her eyes. "But anyways, now we know where to start."

**A/N: Review! I update really quick if I get reviews, it's been proven! :D**


	9. Chapter 9: Beauty and the Beast

**A/N: Sorry for the wait again, and hope you like this chapter! It's longer, so that's good. I think my chapters are short because I write them in shorter periods of time...I could write 5k long chapters in maybe a week or two weeks, or I could do chapters this length and post every three days to a week. It's all proportional. Just to let you know. Anyways, hope you like it! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

"What did you find?"

Usually he snuck up on her and scared her, but today she was ready for it. She'd been listening for the distinctive squeak of his shoes. She'd figured out that people's footsteps sounded different on the linoleum, depending on the way they walked, how fast, and what type of shoe they wore. It had taken a few days, but now she could identify his easy, confident stride. As he approached, she realized that they were completely alone in the hallway, and she kind of wanted to ask what had happened that he had gotten expelled, while Maddie wasn't around, but she felt like he wouldn't answer her even if she asked. He'd probably make a joke and evade the question, and Kate wasn't in the mood for jokes. So she pushed it to the back of her mind for the moment and stayed on their main topic: Melanie Cross.

"Maddie will show you. She's coming."

True to form, Maddie walked in right on cue. "Hey guys. So are we off to talk to Mr. Anthony?"

"Okay, a) how are you so freaking perky, it is seven-thirty in the morning, and b) who's Mr. Anthony and why are we going to talk to him?" Rick asked.

"A) Maddie's always been a morning person," Kate snorted, "and b) Mr. Anthony is-"

"The drama teacher?" he guessed.

The girls stared at him. "How did you know that?"

"Melanie was in all black, and the big sweatshirt she was wearing said Les Mis on it. Actors always wear black."

"Not always," Kate rolled her eyes. "And so do half the other kids at the school."

"Yeah, well, I made a connection based on the evidence I had."

"That's not a connection," Kate informed him. "That is what we call a conjecture."

He made a face, mocking her. "Not all of us have a freshmen yearbook."

"How did you know that?" Maddie wondered, impressed.

"Girls always use yearbooks to find dirt on people. Trust me. I know."

Kate looked at him sideways. Rick never seemed to talk about his old school, or even his life before a week ago. Maybe that was why he bugged her so much. She knew so little about him, but he always seemed to know so much about her. Speaking of which...

They were nearing the drama department now, where more signs were pasted on the walls, generally big homemade posters for the play, Beauty and the Beast, which opened on Saturday. People running errands and bustling around seemed to be getting ready for it. Kate wondered whether mr. Anthony would even have time to talk to him. But at the moment she was more interested in trying not to catch the eye of the dark-haired boy walking towards them holding a monstrous mask, obviously the costume for the beast. His eyes were ringed with black eyeshadow and his hair was streaked with purple, red and silver, the school's colors. He had an earring in each lobe, and a small gem in his nose. Kate kept her head down, hoping he wouldn't see her.

"Kate!"

No such luck.

She gritted her teeth into a smile and turned to him. "Tanner!" she said with false enthusiasm. "Um, how are you?"

"I'm great, how are you?"

"I'm, um, good. What are you doing here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm the Beast. What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for Mr. Anthony. Have you seen him?"

"Yeah, he's dealing with some stuff. No one's seen our lead since two days ago, so he's freaking out. I heard she's got pneumonia and bronchitis and she can't talk, let alone sing, so he's trying to make sure the understudy knows everything. The understudy didn't think there was any chance she'd be needed so she didn't learn her lines as well as she should've. Not that I blame her, I probably wouldn't have either—I mean, Mel's never missed a show."

"Oh, then we won't bother them. By the way, do you know Melanie Cross? Have you seen her lately?" Kate wondered.

"No, like I said, no one's seen her in two days. Melanie Cross is playing Belle." He shrugged. "Or...well...was."

"Oh!" Maddie said, caught by surprise. "Well, it's lucky you, um, have an understudy. We'll, erm, see you later, Tanner."

They walked away quickly, leaving him standing there with his giant head.

"Oh, god, that was so awkward," Kate exhaled. "I mean, he just has to sneak up on me when I'm least expecting..."

"Nice guy," Rick nodded. "Even though he seems kind of strange. But then again, he is a drama geek. So that's why you didn't know that Melanie was in drama," Rick nodded. "Have you been avoiding the theater part of the school?"

She glared at him. "I have not. I just haven't had any reason in a while."

"Nah, she's been avoiding it," Maddie corrected, leaning around her to talk to him. "But she wasn't really into acting anyways. Not sure why, you'd be good at it," she added, turning to Kate. "You're always so melodramatic."

Kate stuck her tongue out at her.

"Anyways, let's go find Mr. Anthony, I want to see if he knows who Melanie usually hangs out with," Kate said.

"Hung out with," Rick corrected.

She rolled her eyes and continued walking, Maddie following. Before he walked after them, Rick glanced back at Tanner. "I can't believe she used to date that guy," he muttered, and followed them farther into the drama department.

**A/N: If you found the little reference Easter eggs, you can have cyber-cookies. :) Don't forget to review, please! **


	10. Chapter 10: Interrogations

**A/N: Well, I'm actually posting something fairly quickly. Hope you like it! And it's the longest chapter yet! **

**Also, I hope you enjoy the new characters. And new-old characters. ;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

The door to the drama room was open, and a steady stream of students flowed in and out. Kate and Maddie walked right in, but Rick paused to stare after a bizarre looking boy dressed even stranger than Tanner. Having gone to private school all his life, Rick had never experienced a place where all the uniforms dress codes he'd grown up were gone. He shook his head in bewilderment and skilled into the classroom.

"Hey, Mr. Anthony," Kate grinned at the teacher.

At the moment, only one other student was in the class, a girl with brown hair and a sweet face who was reading over a script, mouthing the words she was learning. Mr. Anthony, a solid-built middle-aged man with slightly grating dark hair, was at his desk, flipping through tapes. When they entered, he looked up and his face broke into a grin. "Katie! How have you been? And Maddie! How are you?"

"Great, how about you?"

"Well, it's tech week," he shrugged, smiling apologetically, and that was explanation enough. "You didn't try out for the show? How come?"

"Oh, um, I've been busy," she replied, the half-lie awkward coming out of her mouth.

He raised an eyebrow with a little smirk. "Right. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"We were looking for Melanie Cross' friends, I was hoping you'd know who she hangs out with. My Chem teacher told me to give them some stuff for her for homework." She couldn't tell a lie about her ex-boyfriend, but she could make something up about Melanie in a heartbeat. What was with that?

"Malanie's friends?" the girl called, looking up. "I'm in her little group, I could tell you. I can't get the homework to her today, I'll be here until eight or nine probably." She made a face.

"Well, if you'd learned your lines like you were supposed to, we'd just have to run through," Mr. Anthony snapped. The girl didn't react, instead going back to her work. "That's Alison, our understudy. She's busy right now, but I can help. You should look for Daniel O'Connor, Christine Nguyen, and Lucas Pratt. They should be in the choir room, they're three of our main furniture characters, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, and Chip respectively. You sure you remember where the choir room is?" he teased.

"Of course," Kate snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Bye, Mr. Anthony," Maddie said. "Thanks!"

"Whoa, wait!" the teacher called. They turned back. "You girls didn't introduce me to this fine young man."

"Oh, right," Maddie said; both her and Kate had almost forgotten that Rick had been standing there the whole time. "Mr. Anthony, this is Rick Rodgers. Rick, Mr. Anthony."

Mr. Anthony shook Rick's hand. "Nice to meet you, sir," he greeted him jovially. "Are you new to this school?"

"Yes, I transferred last week."

"Had any experience acting?"

"Yessir, my mom's an actress on Broadway. I learn stuff from her," Rick nodded.

"Who's your mom?"

"Martha Rodgers."

Mr. Anthony's face lit up. "Martha! Well, tell your mother Hank Anthony says bonjour."

"Sure thing, Mr. Anthony," Rick grinned. "How do you know her?"

"Oh, we worked on the Phantom of the Opera together years ago," Mr. Anthony said sentimentally.

"I'll bet. Behind the scenes in a theater is always really fascinating, isn't it?"

"They are indeed, my boy. Are you planning on trying out for the play next year

"No, my mom's sending me back to private school next year. I'll be sure to come to the show on Saturday."

"Aw, shame. It would've been great to work with you."

"Well, we actually really have to go," Kate interrupted quickly, before they got into the nicey-nice formalities. "Got to find Daniel, Christine, and Lucas before school starts."

"Sure thing, kiddo," Mr. Anthony grinned. "Bye, Maddie. And nice to meet you, Rick."

They left to find the choir room. "So you were in a musical," Rick asked, grinning.

"Oh yeah, she was brilliant. They did Fiddler on the Roof, and she didn't have a huge part, but she did have a solo," Maddie replied.

"And was Melanie in it?" Rick wondered pointedly.

"No she was not," Kate snapped. "Now come on, we have to find those kids, we have half an hour to interrogate them."

"Ooh, interrogate. I feel so professional," Rick grinned happily.

"Well, maybe you should be a cop," Kate smirked.

"Nah, too much risk to my own well-being. Where's the choir room?"

"Right here," Kate said, and opened the door on the left.

A bunch of kids were singing harmony, while a kid dressed in gold sang the melody of 'Be Our Guest'.

"That must be Daniel," Maddie whispered.

A few kids, also in costume, were watching over to the side, whispering to each other and grinning. They focused on two sitting together, a girl who looked like a teapot, and a small kid who was dressed like a cup, a foam handle on his back.

"There, let's talk to them," Maddie said.

She snuck behind the chairs and tapped Christine's shoulder.

"Hey, can I talk to you guys? Just about Melanie."

The two kids frowned at each other, then finally nodded. "Sure," Lucas said, and they followed her to the door, where Kate and Rick walked into the hallway with them.

"So what about Melanie?" Christine asked.

"Do you know where she was yesterday?" Kate asked.

"I'm not sure, she, like, never ditches, so she mustn't had a good reason for not being here. Why?"

"I...um...can't tell you, sorry," Kate said apologetically. "Do you have any idea why she didn't show up? Like, could she have been prevented from coming?"

"I don't know, I can't think of any reason." Christine continued to frown, but she seemed to accept that Kate wouldn't tell her.

"Okay, did she seem, I don't know, worried or anything in the past few weeks? Or even the last few days."

"I don't know, I don't think so," Christine glanced at Lucas.

Lucas shook his head. "No, she seemed excited. She was really thrilled about everything, like she wasn't even stressing and it's tech week."

"But then again, Mel's a really good actress," Christine added. "She can hide anything. Last year she broke up with her boyfriend and she didn't want anyone to worry about her so no one knew for weeks. Come to think of it, we didn't even know she was sick this week."

"I don't think she's sick." They turned to see Tanner, now in a full fur costume, his Beast head still in his hand. "You can't get bronchitis that quick, and you can't fake not having symptoms. She would not have been able to do vibrato two days ago. The only reason I really noticed that day was because she hadn't been singing full strength for a while so her voice would be really good this week, and then she pulled it out and BOOM! It was amazing."

"Then where do you think she is, Tanner?" Christine snapped.

"I don't know, but she's not sick, trust me."

"Whatever. Did you guys talk to her boyfriend?" Christine asked.

"Wait, she has a boyfriend?" Rick asked.

"No, Rick, she's making it up," Kate snapped.

"Yeah, they've been inseparable for the past month. He might have talked to her yesterday."

"Was a drama g-" Maddie coughed, pausing before she offended anyone. "Was he a thespian?"

"No, he's in a few of her classes. They started dating about two months ago. His name is Josh Davidson."

"Oh, I know him," Kate nodded. "Cool, thanks, I'll talk to you later probably."

As they turned to leave, Maddie frowned. "Do I know Josh?"

Kate grinned. "You know him. I know him better, but you definitely know him."

"Wait, who is he?"

"Josh Davidson is the cute guy you like who sits next to me in history."

Maddie's jaw dropped. "He has a girlfriend?" She went on the defensive. "And you like him too."

"Maybe a little. And I guess so," Kate replied.

"Had," Rick corrected. "He had a girlfriend. What's so special about this Josh kid anyways?" He was evidently sulky about the fact that this guy was the "cute one".

Maddie and Kate grinned at each other, then smirked at Rick.

"He rides a motorcycle," Maddie informed him smugly.

"Pssh. Motorcycles are overrated."

Kate shook her head, eyebrow raised and mouth twisted in a little smirk. "Motorcycles are definitely not overrated." She paused to check her watch. "I have to go to my locker and then go talk to Mr. Martin about something I didn't get on his homework. I have history after lunch, so I'll talk to Josh then and I'll meet you, hopefully with him, out in the front at the base of the steps." She walked away briskly, leaving no room for them to comment.

"Lemme guess: she wants a bike," Rick said to Maddie.

She snorted. "Oh, yeah. She totally wants a bike. You have no idea."

**A/N: Well, well, well, who might this be? ;) As always, reviews are appreciated. **


	11. Chapter 11: Victim Love

**A/N: Jeez, wow, sorry guys, it's been like forever! (Longer than this dang hiatus we're in!) Writer's block (not to mention homework) struck, but never fear; the next chapter is coming much quicker. As far as this chapter goes...I blame Josh. He's such a problem. Yanno. The usual. D**

Anyways, hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I'm not the coolest person alive, so therefore I don't own Castle. Sad, isn't it?

Rick stood at the base of the steps with his hands in his pockets, leaning against the railing, half of his mind reveling in the fact that he could now wear jeans to school. The other half paid attention to the kids swarming around him, the bell having just rung. He examined each face that passed for a split second each. At this point, any of these kids could be a killer.

"Hey, Rick." He spun to see Kate standing behind him with another guy at her side. Rick appraised him. He had dark hair, tan skin, and a wide grin. His leather jacket, black pants, and ratty ripped up high tops didn't surprise Rick in the slightest, if he rode a motorbike. Even Richard Rodgers wasn't above stereotyping sometimes.

"Hey," he said slowly, eyes still on the kid. "This is Josh?"

"That's me!" Josh said cheerfully. "You must be Rick. Kate was telling me all about you."

"Was she now?" Rick asked, cocking his head with a smirk. She rolled her eyes back at him.

Josh looked between them. "Oh, you two aren't—"

"No," Kate said quickly.

At the same time Rick replied, "Not yet."

She glared at him. "Absolutely not."

"Okay..." Josh raised an eyebrow. "So you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to know, have you seen Melanie lately?"

"No, sorry, she's not here today," he shrugged. "I think she's sick."

"You don't know for sure whether your girlfriend is sick," Rick said incredulously. "You don't care enough to go check? What kind of fail boyfriend—"

"Shut it, Richard," Kate snapped.

He shut up sullenly. "Well, it's true," he muttered, but Josh looked back to Kate.

"I wasn't here yesterday either," Josh said. "I didn't feel well so I came to turn in a huge project, then went to home to sleep it off."

"Okay, well, when you talked to her last how did she sound? Line, anxious or scared or anything?" Kate asked, frowning. Rick could almost see the gears turning in her head.

"Well, she seemed pretty excited for the show, maybe a little tired from staying late. I'd been staying with her so she wouldn't have to walk home alone. I don't get why she's suddenly sick though, she was making sure she was staying healthy so she'd be able to make all the shows, she was really focused on that. I guess you can get really sick from germs, I mean, she was practicing the end of the play when I was there day before yesterday."

Kate didn't say anything, her brow crinkled in confusion. "You've never read Beauty and the Beast, have you?" Rick asked.

"My mom's a lawyer," she retorted. "I was not a fairytale princess girl."

"At the end of Beauty and the Beast, Belle says she loves him, he turns back into a human, and they kiss."

"Ah," Kate nodded, understanding. "Thank you, I would not have known that."

"Wow, you're deprived," Rick whistled. "What did you grow up on?"

"She's a comic book girl." Maddie skipped down the stairs, messenger bag laden with books. "Sorry, I got held up at the library. My English teacher was being ridiculous, said we were wasting work time."

"And were you?" Kate wondered expectantly.

"Yeah." She smiled at Josh, turning on the charm. "Hi, I'm Maddie!" she told him, shaking his hand vivaciously.

"Hi," he grinned. "Are you here to interrogate me too?"

"Yep...why did you use the word interrogate, by the way?"

"I just thought it was appropriate," he replied in bemusement. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason." She waved off the inquiry with slim fingers.

"So, um..." Kate tried to decide how to phrase her question without giving too much away, "you weren't feeling well?"

"Yeah, I guess it was exhaustion; I've been up pretty late too." He looked between them, Kate whose brow was furrowed as she thought, Maddie who seemed confused, having entered the conversation, and Rick, who could somehow frown at Josh suspiciously while watching Kate admiringly. Out of everything, Josh picked up on that the most.

"So Melanie was playing Belle," Rick said, laying it out for himself. "Tanner is playing the Beast. So your girlfriend is kissing someone else...and you don't care?"

"If you want to know if I was jealous, and I don't see how that has anything to do with you, the answer is no. It's acting."

"It was never more?"

"No, it wasn't," Josh snapped defensively. "And I don't know why it matters to you."

"It's sort of important, and not for some petty reason," Kate said, gentle but commanding.

Josh stared at her for a moment. "Fine. Look, she would go to rehearsal, and I'd be watching the whole time, and she'd grin and wave at me every time Mr. Anthony stopped them, no matter how annoyed he'd get at her. And then after rehearsal she'd walk up to where I was waiting and smile and hug me, and we'd stand there for two minutes while the rest of the theater would be empty and then I'd take her home. Good enough?"

Kate nodded solemnly. "Yes, thanks, Josh."

Josh ducked his head and walked through them awkwardly, approaching his bike and vrooming off down the street. The three of them watched him go.

"He's lying, glaring after the motorcycle.

"I don't know if he's lying, but he knows something," Kate agreed.

"What are you talking about?" Maddie asked.

"This is why she needs help in English," Kate grinned at Rick.

"The whole story was in past tense," Rick told Maddie. "Like it'll never happen again."

"Like he already knows she's dead," Kate nodded.

-

"So if Josh knows, there are two explanations. Either he's the killer-" Kate began.

"Or he was there and now he's ring blackmailed into pretending he doesn't know."

They were outside of the gym again, waiting for drama ensemble, who was practicing the dance to the same number they'd been working on in the morning.

"Maybe the killer is blackmailing her parents, too," Maddie suggested.

"And that's why they haven't said anything," Kate agreed. "What we need to do is find out if Melanie has an excused absence, if her parents confirmed that she's sick."

"How do we do that?" Maddie wondered.

"We sneak into the office," Rick replied. "That's the only thing for it. I know how to pick a lock," he offered.

The music had stopped and they heard yelling from inside the gym. The dancers spilled out into the hallway, chattering away. They picked Daniel, Christine, and Lucas out of the crowd, heading towards the water fountain, while Rick noticed that Alison was walking in the opposite direction, alone. Maddie went to catch up to the group of Melanie's friends, while Rick caught Kate's shoulder as she moved towards them, yanking her back. "Ach, Rick!"

"Look." He pointed towards Alison. "Isn't she their friend?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, she said she was in their circle of friends."

"So? Maybe she brought her own water. Maybe she's going back to the classroom to practice some more with Mr. Anthony. Who knows, Rick?"

"No, look."

Alison looked around, before sitting down against the wall and watching her so-called friends chat and laugh resentfully. Kate's jaw dropped.

"That does not look like the sign of best friends forever," Rick muttered.

"No, it doesn't."

They spared the understudy one last glance, before catching up to Maddie.

"Hey, I have a question for you guys," Maddie was saying, already talking to the three sophomores. "How would you describe Melanie's relationship with Josh?"

"I don't know, I know they really, really liked each other," Lucas shrugged. "Why?"

"Um, it's sort of a secret," Maddie replied. "So there was no strain or anything?"

Christine snorted. "Oh no. They're honestly the most solid couple I've ever seen in high school. But I don't get-"

"Thanks for the help," Maddie said quickly, grabbing Kate and Rick's hands and dragging them away.

"Okay, we need a better cover story than, 'I can't tell you'," she informed them.

"Yeah, we'll work on that later. But check this out." They pointed at Alison glaring after the other actors.

"Wow, that doesn't look very friendly," Maddie commented.

"So...we really need to get into the office," Kate sighed. "I'm almost afraid to say this, but we need to sneak in. Rick, you weren't kidding about picking a lock, right? Because if you were, you have until tonight to figure out how."

"Of course I wasn't kidding," he replied with a laugh. He pulled out his wallet and showed them the pick he had hidden in a pocket. "So when are we doing this?"

"Tonight," Kate said decisively, still watching Alison suspiciously. "I hope you guys have some black clothes. Something that won't make too much noise." She raised an eyebrow at Maddie. "And that means no heels."

Maddie smiled back innocently. "Look who's talking."

"Tonight then?" Rick asked, interrupting.

"Yeah, meet a block east of here," Kate answered. "I sure hope they don't have good security."

**A/N: Well, that's it! Next chapter is half-written already so it'll be up much quicker. It's pretty fun, too. As if Josh wasn't fun enough... Anyways, hope you liked it, and don't forget to let me know what you thought!**


	12. Chapter 12: Leather & Stilletos

**A/N: Whoo, update! Hope you enjoy this chapter, I liked writing it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

"This is New York. How the heck is this going to work? It's like daylight all night," Maddie reasoned.

"Maddie," Kate snapped through gritted teeth. " It'll work. Now shut up or I'll hurt you."

They sat in Kate's room, waiting for eleven o' clock, getting ready. They'd convinced their parents to let them have a sleepover, even though it was a school night, and were now picking out clothes to wear. Maddie unloaded the bag she'd brought for Kate to examine.

"Maddie," Kate repeated, exasperated as she went through the clothes she'd chosen. She held up her friend's choice of pants. "Leather? Really?"

"I didn't have any other black pants!" Maddie poured.

"It'll be dark, you could've just jeans."

"Well, it's too late now," Maddie shrugged resignedly. "I dot fit into your jeans, so I guess I'm in leather."

"But these, like, squeak!" Kate sighed, flopping back against her bed. "Okay, okay. The sweatshirt, hat, and sunglasses work though."

"How about the shoes?" She held up black sneakers.

"Yeah, they're good. Okay, let's change, then we can work on makeup."

"Ooh, we're using warpaint?" Maddie grinned.

"Obviously, duh," Kate replied. "Now get dressed."

Maddie looked down at the leather pants in her hand in dismay. "Then I have to wear these for, like, three hours."

Kate shrugged. "You brought 'em."

Maddie pouted. "Fine. But I'm changing in the bathroom."

"Sure they're not a little small?" Kate smirked.

Maddie glared at her before disappearing into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she emerged, walking on her toes and pulling at the seams on the side. Kate chuckled but didn't comment, sitting there in her dark jeans Maddie glared some more. "Not. One. Word."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Kate replied innocently. "Now come here." She waved her container of black makeup at her. Maddie grinned and leapt excitedly onto the bed.

It took a surprisingly short amount of time to cover both their faces. "Okay, it'll take a little bit to get there, so we'd better leave now," Maddie said. She wiggled her nose and crossed her eyes. "Ah, it's itchy!"

"Yeah, I know," Kate said absently, smearing the stuff over her forehead. "Sorry about that. If it makes you feel better, I have to out this all over Rick as well."

Maddie's focus immediately shifted. "And are you looking forward to...putting it all over Rick?" She waggled her eyebrows.

Kate cringed. "Never, ever, do that again. It's disturbing. And no, absolutely not. I do not like him." She emphasized each word.

"If you didn't like him, he wouldn't annoy you so much."

"Are you on something?" Kate snorted. "That makes no sense."

"So...if I went out with him, you wouldn't care?"

"No, of course not," Kate said casually, flipping through her history textbook, which was sitting at her feet on the floor. "Go ahead."

"Great. And, you know, you could always just go make up with Tanner."

Kate snorted and pushed her off the bed.

"Come on, we should go." Kate opened the window. "Oh, wait."

She crossed to her door, listening for anyone coming up the stairs.

"Okay, we're clear." She opened the door a crack. "Mom, we're going to bed!" she called.

"Okay, sweetheart. Sleep tight!"

"Oh, Maddie will," she snorted, smirking at her friend's leather dilemma.

Maddie narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

"What?" Mrs. Beckett called.

"Nothing, inside joke. 'Night!"

She shut her door and turned out the lights. "Okay, come on," she whispered, ready to step onto the fire escape.

"Uh, Becks."

"What?"

Maddie flipped on the flashlight she'd brought, shining it at Kate's feet. "Shoes?"

Kate looked down. "Right." She moved towards her closet, but just as quickly stopped short and swore. "My black sneakers are downstairs!"

"Don't you have any other black shoes?"

Kate rolled her eyes, not at Maddie, but at the situation. She yanked open her closet door and pulled out a pair of shoes. "Yeah. These."

Maddie smiled slowly. "Karma does not like you, my friend. Those are your only other black shoes?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Maddie smirked evilly. "I guess you'll have to wear them."

"I could go barefoot," she half-suggested hopefully.

"Yeah, that'll work. Your feet will be black the moment you step outside. Not to mention frozen."

"Nah, it's March, right?"

"It's cold. Wear them."

Kate swore again but slipped the four inch heels onto her feet.

They climbed out the window and down the fire escape. "Nice shoes," Maddie muttered, one flight of stairs below her. "I like the loud clicky noises they make."

"I'm liking the fact that the heel keeps getting stuck in these stupid holes!" Kate hissed sarcastically in reply.

"Karma!" Maddie sang.

"Shut up."

They snuck through the back alleys. "This is the sketchiest thing I've ever done in my life," Maddie commented.

"Just avoid eye contact with anyone and you'll be fine."

Twenty minutes later they emerged a street from the school. Rick was waiting there with his hands in his pockets. Even in stealth gear, he looked good. Kate, in her heels, hated him for it. He noticed the unusual wardrobe choice, and he raised an eyebrow, opening his mouth to comment.

Kate cut him off. "Just don't speak. Do not speak, or I will murder you. Got it?"

He nodded, trying very hard to keep the grin off his face.

"Here." She dragged him into the shadows beneath a closed store's awning and began to rub makeup over his face.

He reached up to scratch, moving his jaw around (much to her displeasure), but she hit his hand away.

"Stop fidgeting, we have to go. It's already eleven. I want to be back by midnight."

Rick dropped his arm and tried to stand statue still. Once she was satisfied with his appearance, she nodded. "Okay, let's go. Alleys."

"As if this wasn't creepy enough," Rick muttered, but slipped into the back street behind the stores after them.

"That's what I was saying!" Maddie whispered. She looked pointedly at Kate, but it didn't help her cause; Kate as ahead of them and didn't seem to care MFN whether or not they were following. In fact, she seemed to be ignoring them. They ran to catch up. By the time they had, she'd already reached the street. On the other side was the school.

The streets were deserted and fairly dark; not even homeless people were out on the sidewalks. They jaywalker across and slipped through a gap in the gate where it was under construction.

Kate ran through the grass like a shadow, her shoes barely causing the blades to rustle. The other two were not so silent.

"How can she run in those heels?" Rick wondered.

"I have no idea," Maddie shook her head. "She's always been good at it."

"Shh," Kate hissed, skipping lightly up the stairs. "Rick?" she called as she got to the door.

Rick started. "Oh, right." He ran up to join them and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, digging a small lock pick out of the coins. In a moment the door was opened.

"Thank you," Kate muttered, and they slipped inside the office.

In the dark, all the furniture looked rundown, like the school was abandoned. "Where do they keep the records?" Rick whispered. "I've sort of never been absent."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I have. They keep the book in that desk drawer."

Just then, a light flashed through the window from the hallway. Maddie grabbed both their shoulders and pulled them down behind the desk.

"Since when does this place have or need night guards?" Rick muttered.

"Since really bad vandalism, before we got here. How do you think the school got to be so nice?" Maddie replied.

"Shush!" Kate hissed. The light briefly threw shadows of the blinds on the wall behind them. Footsteps shuffled along the linoleum, then faded. All three of them let out sighs of relief. Kate stood cautiously. "Rick, lock pick?"

He handed her the metal pick and she unlocked it with a click. "You know how to pick a lock?"

She smirked down at him. Maddie snorted.

"If it's illegal, she probably knows how to do it."

"Even kill someone?"

"Got it, absentee book," she muttered, pulling it out and ducking down. She leaned against the desk and flipped through the thin book. "Melanie Cross has been absent two days...excused. The reason says she's got pneumonia and bronchitis, like they said..." Her brow furrowed in confusion as she shut it. "Okay, we'd better go." She stood up to put it back. The drawer clicked when it closed, and she pulled it to make sure it had locked.

There was a crash in the hallways and Kate swore.

"Language, again, jeez," Maddie grinned.

"Not the time. Go, go!" Kate hissed. Maddie sprinted out the door as Kate handed the lock pick back to Rick. They'd just gotten to the exit when the other door opened with a bang. Rick brought his hand up to his mouth and Kate could've sworn he'd eaten it.

"Freeze!" a man yelled at the same moment. "Put your hands up and turn around!"

They obeyed. Kate gaped at him as the cops walked over to cuff them.

"Wait a minute..." the lead cop squinted at them as two others patted them down. "I know you two."

They glared at him through the makeup. It was the detective who hadn't believed their story about the murder.

"They're clean," one of the other cops said. "It wasn't vandalism, wasn't a robbery either."

"So what are you doing here?" Detective Harding wondered.

Kate's jaw dropped as Rick said, "I don't know, Detective, you tell me."

**A/N: Hope you liked it! Feedback is always appreciated.**


	13. Chapter 13: Stuck In Holding

**A/N: I feel so accomplished, people! I quite enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you do too. Hope this satisfies your teenage Caskett wishes. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. I also don't own that EW issue with Nathan that came out on Friday, though I really wish I owned both!**

"Alright, move it." Detective Harding watched as they pushed Kate and Rick into holding. They'd taken the cuffs off, but Rick was still massaging his wrists where they'd bitten into his skin. They stumbled into the cell as the bars grated shut.

"Well, this sucks." Rick sat down on the bench in the back. "You ever been in here?"

"Never," Kate muttered, leaning against the metal and clanging her nails across the bars. "You?"

"Close," he grinned weakly.

"Me too." She sat down beside him and turned her head. "Did you...swallow it?"

"Nah, it's in my cheek. So how hard are your parents gonna take it?"

"My parents don't yell, they just do the disappointment voice. I've sort of learned to tune them out by now. You?"

"My mom won't care. She'll laugh and make some joke."

She nodded, dropping her chin into her hand and glared at the wall outside the door. Rick wondered how she wasn't burning holes through it. He wanted to ask a question but her intense expression scared him. He didn't really want to get his head broken off. Luckily, she broke the silence first.

"Why are you so secretive?"

"Secretive? I'm not secretive."

"You know so much about me; my ex-boyfriend, what I do after school, my grades...thanks to Maddie, you have all the access to my life that you want. But I don't know anything about your life before this."

"I thought girls liked mysterious guys."

"When we know why they're mysterious. I don't know your reputation, your academics, your favorite activities, your friends-"

"That's because I'm at your school, not the other way around," he interrupted.

"That's the problem! You came in and invaded my life without my permission!" She glared at him in frustration.

"So that's why you've considered me annoying this whole time," Rick muttered.

She ground her teeth and shook her head, turning away to lean against the wall, folding her arms angrily.

He watched her for a moment. Finally he sighed. "I don't play any sports, and I'm not in any clubs. I've always been a bit of a loner because I switch schools so often. A lot of time I have to skip school because my mom's on the road for work, and when she's not I never really see her much because she's always working. I suck really bad at math but I like writing. Heck, I love writing. There was this guy—junior high boarding school, sucked until I met him, Damien—he told me just how good of a writer I could be, wanted to be a writer ever since. When I was a kid I had a nanny until I was eleven. I've never had a serious relationship but I've been on tons of first dates. I've been kicked out of quite a few schools—sometimes for fighting, sometimes for what these guys would call disorderly conduct. But the fighting, what I got kicked out for this time, I was not the bad guy. I'm the one who they catch. I just...I hate bullies." He shrugged. "The thing is, my friend Damien, besides making me like writing more, he taught me that you shouldn't stand by and do nothing when someone else is picking on someone smaller than them. So if it means getting kicked out, whatever."

Kate had begun leaning forward while he'd been talking, and at the end, he turned to look at her and they found themselves suddenly an inch from each other. They stared for a moment, transfixed on the other's eyes, deep blue on muddy green, and Rick leaned in slightly, bringing them even closer. But as soon as he moved his eyes flickered off hers, and the spell was broken. She ducked and turned her head to look at the side wall.

Rick swallowed and stared at his palms.

Kate finally said, "Thanks. For telling me, I mean." She glanced back at him, cracking a smile. "Not quite an enigma anymore, then."

"Nope." There was more silence, before he finally continued, "So what did Maddie mean when she said you knew all the illegal stuff?"

Kate chuckled. "I've never done drugs, never smoked, never shoplifter or stolen anything. No vandalism or trespassing. I have no criminal record. Nothing. But I know how to do all of it. I guess you could say I have a moral record. Heck, I know how to make counterfeit. That's not normal. What is wrong with me?"

"But if you don't actually-"

"But I could. Kind of scary, huh?"

"So...could you kill someone?"

"Absolutely. I'm a black belt."

Rick whistled. "Wow, I'm impressed."

"But I'm better with a knife." She lowered her voice. "I'd show you my blade but I think they're watching us."

"You have a-" She grinned at his amazement and he paused. "You were kidding?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Kate smirked. "I will tell you, however, that I have two stripes."

He whistled appreciatively. Neither added anything.

Finally she said, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead. I mean, you just did, but yeah, go ahead."

She smiled. "Just...your life. Switching schools, being the loner all the time, your mom...I was just wondering. Are you...happy?"

He smiled back at her and put his hand on hers. "Right now, I wouldn't change a thing." He held his head up with his other hand and instantly made a face. "However, I'd be happier if I could get this gross black stuff off my face."

He began to rub his skin harshly. Kate laughed and helped him, rubbing the sleeve of her sleeve ratty sweatshirt over his face.

"How does this not bug you? God, you just piled it on-"

"I'm a girl, it's second nature," she joked. "They'd made pretty good progress getting all the makeup off when Detective Harding walked back into the holding area.

"What am I going to do with you two?" he asked. "What were you doing at school at midnight anyways?"

"I left my book there, Rick was helping me get it. I would've just borrowed it from someone but Rick doesn't take the same language as me. And he's the only person who I know will always be up at midnight," she laughed.

"How did you get in the administration room?"

"I don't know the school very well," Rick shrugged. "She tried to tell me it was wrong, but I'm pretty convincing."

The detective rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Alright, I'll let you go without pressing any charges since I can't find anything wrong-"

"Because there is nothing wrong," Rick snapped.

"But if I find you messing around again, I will press charges for obstruction of justice," he snapped.

As they walked out, Mrs. Rodgers swept in dramatically. "Oh, darling, are you okay? I told them you two only needed something out of your locker, I'm so glad you're okay!" She kissed her son on the head. "Hello, Kate, dear, how's your mother?"

"She's, um, great, Mrs. Rodgers," Kate said, trying to play along.

"Wonderful, she'll be so worried, I called her while I was waiting to tell her you're on your way home right now. Come, dears."

And with that they left the police department without a backward glance.

Once they'd gotten in a taxi, she smiled at Kate. "So, you must be Kate. I didn't call your mother, you're free to sneak back in."

Kate grinned. "Thank you, for getting us out and for not calling my mom."

"I didn't feel the need to trouble her. And it's not going on your record, they're barely making a note of it, so I figured why bother?"

The taxi stopped outside Kate's apartment and she smiled. "Thanks, it was nice to have met you." As the car pulled away, she ran over to the fire escape and began to climb. Maddie sat in the dark in her room, waiting. "What happened?" she whispered as Kate climbed in the window.

"Rick has the coolest mother ever," she grinned. "Come on, we'd better get to sleep. I'll tell you on the way to school in the morning.

**A/N: Well, I'd love to know what you thought of this! *wink wink* Next chapter may take a bit longer, but I'll try not to go month hiatus again. Especially since we're coming off an almost month hiatus from the show itself... :)**


	14. Chapter 14: What's Your Story?

**A/N: Yes, longest update ever! Must be why it took a week to post, sorry about that. Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. **

"So her parents are covering up her murder?" Maddie asked as they sat in the cafeteria at lunch the next day. They'd tried a few different places in the school to meet, but they'd decided in the end that this was the only place they could talk and not be overheard at any given time, because there would always be some noisy group of kids sitting there. "That is sick."

"Tell me about it," Kate nodded. "Them and Josh Davidson."

"I knew I didn't like that guy," Rick muttered.

"He might be being blackmailed," Kate countered. "There's a killer out there somewhere, maybe they threatened Josh and her parents."

Standing behind her, Rick rolled his eyes.

"Maybe the parents did it," he suggested.

Maddie and Kate both look at him, Kate swiveling around in her seat to narrow her eyes at him in exasperation.

"No, think about this. Seventeen years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Cross were having an affair, when Mr. Cross was married to someone else. His first wife figured it out, and they plotted for months to get rid of her. But his wife announces that she's pregnant, and suddenly Mr. Cross won't kill her. So they wait. The baby is born, and a week later, the mother is dead. When Mr. Cross grieves, the current Mrs. Cross becomes his comfort. Two months later, they're married, and the baby never knows what happened to her mother. Now, Melanie thinks that's her real mom. But last year during the musical, Melanie always got home at different hours late at night. One night she happens to hear yelling as she approaches the door, so she waits to listen, and she hears her parents arguing about her real mom. As soon as she walks in they stop talking. She gets curious, and takes the semester off tdrama to find out what's up. She discovers that her mother died years ago, was murdered, in fact, and that the killer was never found. She thinks about it for months, and finally comes to the conclusion that it had to be her parents. She doesn't go to the police-the case has been cold for sixteen years, they're not going to care. And we've all found out how little the cops care about teenagers' opinions. Instead, she askes the one person who's there for her, who cares about her completely-her boyfriend, Josh."

"Why not her friends?" Maddie wondered, drawn into the story.

"Are you kidding? Have you seen the drama kids? They're more like frenemies," RIck replied.

Kate shrugged and glanced at Maddie. "It's true."

"So Josh says, 'we have to ask your parents'," Rick continued. "Melanie doesn't like it, but she agrees. So they skip school one day and walk to Melanie's house. Maybe her parents were getting something from the basement, maybe they were talking as they took out the trash. Whatever they were doing, Melanie and Josh found them in the back. No one's home, people are at school or work. Melanie asks them about it. 'You killed my real mother', she accuses. They glance at each other, and that's all the confirmation she needs. She starts yelling about how she's going to the cops, and after all these years, they can't give up their perfect lives, can they? So they kill her, right in front of Josh. They realize this too late, but, staring at his girlfriend's body, her eyes blank and the fatal wounds still bleeding, he backs away, promising not to tell. They just glare. 'You better not,' they say, disappearing into their place. Josh is terrified, so he takes off running. Moments later we walk through and find the body. The parents see us from the window, and when we run off to call the cops, they realize they have to get rid of the body, and quick. So they put Melanie in the hallway and clean up the blood. The police show up, but there's no body, and they think we're lying or on drugs. Once they leave, Mr. and Mrs. Cross realize they've got to get rid of the body. They stuff their daughter into a trash bag, and leave her out for the truck the next day. Now she's gone for good, and they can continue with their lives, no remainder of the guilt." Kate and Maddie stared at him, transfixed. For a moment he held their gaze, before he leaned back and grinned. "And that's how you tell a story! Bam, said the lady!"

Kate narrowed her eyes at him. "Murderous step-mom? Really? That's what you're selling?"

"Of course, are you saying my theory is bull-"

"Hey, guys," Maddie interrupted, grabbing onto Rick's sleeve. "Look at that! What's going on out there?" They followed her gaze out the window to the lawn beside the school. Students were allowed to leave campus for lunch, but it didn't look like these six had gone very far. Kate was impressed that Maddie had spotted them at all; they were hidden almost completely from view, both from the street and the cafeteria.

"Shouldn't they be in rehearsal?" Rick asked rhetorically.

"Yes, they should," Kate nodded, ignoring the rhetorical nature of the question. "Come on, let's go check it out."

They left the lunchroom and walked out the side door to where the six students were hiding. As they approached, they realized the kid were sitting in a circle on the grass behind a cluster of maple trees just beginning to bud. They held hands and had their eyes closed. Four of them were familiar to Rick: Allison, Daniel, Christine, and Lucas. The other two were probably other cast members, but Rick couldn't tell.

As they watched, quietly so as not to spook them, Christine began to mutter something under their breath, though none of them could hear. A few of the others seemed to be mouthing the words as she said them. Her voice rose to a normal speech-level as she finished, "And become us evanescence." Everyone joined in on the last sentence. Rick shivered, and standing close by Kate he could feel her shudder as well. The six teens saying that together was eerie.

"Hey," Kate said.

All of them started, quickly dropping each other's hands and opening their eyes.

"Hey, you're Kate, right?" Allison said instantly, trying to cover up the awkward moment.

"Yep, that's me," she nodded. "What'cha doing?" She knelt down between Christine and Lucas, situating herself naturally and easily in the space. She seemed to fit in anywhere she tried to worm her way in. She was the ideal undercover cop, Rick thought to himself. If, of course, she actually had been a cop.

"Just, you know, talking," Lucas said uncomfortably. "About the show."

Kate grinned. "Ah, come on. We're not gonna tell anybody."

"Well, you have to promise," Daniel said. He kept glancing over his shoulder, like he was a fugitive or something. Kate nodded.

"Of course. Do you want a spit swear or something?"

"Um, no, we're good. But…" Allison glanced quickly at Maddie and Rick, who were still standing above them awkwardly. Kate stared pointedly at them, and Maddie jumped.

"Hey, Rick," she said quickly, "can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, sure. We'll just be over here if you need us." Both their voices were a bit louder than normal, and as the drama kids just stared at them, Kate shook her head, dropping her face into her palm.

Maddie dragged Rick over towards the stairs. "She's good at this," he commented.

"She's just good with people," Maddie nodded. "But hey, I did actually have something to ask you."

He continued to watch Kate with their classmates, chatting about whatever they'd been doing animatedly. "Shoot."

"Do you want to, maybe, go out for dinner or something?" she asked. Startled, he shifted his gaze towards her. "Like, see a movie. Like a date."

He grinned. "Aren't I supposed to ask you?"

"Well, yeah, but you seemed so socially awkward that I figured I'd take the initiative."

"Am I really that socially awkward?"

"Well, no, actually. I just figured I'd ask. So what do you say?"

"Of course," he replied, beaming. "It's a date then."

Maddie smiled at him as Kate walked up. "Oh my God, I have a lot to tell you. They're _so weird._"She paused, watching her friends watch each other, wearing big goofy grins. "What's up? Is it important? Because we've got a murder to solve."

"Nah, it's nothing," Maddie said, waving it off.

"Yeah, continue," Rick added instantly. "What's up with them, then?"

"Well, let's go inside, and I'll tell you." She noticed Rick and Maddie eying each other, avoiding eye contact with her. "You sure everything's fine?"

"Of course," Maddie smiled at her. "Come on, let's go in." She skipped up the stairs, with Rick following immediately after. Kate watched them suspiciously as Rick caught up with Maddie and nudged her with his elbow. Maddie laughed. Kate raised an eyebrow, but then her gaze landed on the little group still sitting under the trees, and all thoughts immediately returned to their case.

"So get this," Kate said, sitting opposite Rick and Maddie, who were holding hands without her knowledge under the table. "They're an exclusive group, called the Evanescence Club. They're mainly actors, and they're trying to—I don't know, it's crazy."

"What?" Maddie and Rick said together, impatiently. They looked at each other and grinned.

"Wow, you two are sickening," Kate said exasperatedly. "Anyways, they…they're trying to hide their own…soul, I guess…with someone else's."

Maddie cocked her head and frowned. "I don't get it."

"Their goal is to still have their own thoughts, but also to be able experience life from a different perspective. I guess Lucas found a book on it or something. Anyways, it's like, extreme method acting."

"Evanescence means to disappear or vanish, and they would make their own life disappear…but it's still there," Rick nodded.

"Exactly," Kate nodded.

"Well, that's like a cult; some cults encourage ritualistic killings," Rick offered.

"But a self-made cult of teenagers? I doubt they have ritualistic killings," Kate said dubiously.

"Not killings; kill_ing_," Rick replied, stressing the singular. "Ooh, wait, was Melanie a part of this group? Maybe it was like Russian Roulette—someone has to die. Like human sacrifices!"

"Ritualistic killings and human sacrifices. That's a pretty big leap from murderous parents," Kate snorted. "Switching your story?"

"Just remaining open to all possibilities," he countered.

The bell rang, and Kate stood up, grabbing her bag. "I have to get to psych, I'll see you guys later." She walked out of the cafeteria to get to her classroom in another part of the school. She took the stairs up to the second floor and turned into the psychology room. She sat down at her table and dropped her bag against the table's leg. The two boys she shared the table with were already there, discussing their March Madness brackets.

"How are you doing on those predictions?" she asked, smirking.

Kevin studied his chart, compared to the other. "My team lost last night," he said, making a face.

"Still going strong, baby!" Javier grinned happily.

"Well, maybe you can ask Mr. Ramirez if you can turn it in for extra credit," she suggested. "But congrats, my team lost first round."

"Hey, I like that idea!" he grinned, ignoring the second part of her comment and hitting his buddy on the arm.

"Accurately predicting Final Four teams is not psychology, Mr. Esposito," Mr. Ramirez informed them as he handed everyone a worksheet.

Javier made a face. "So much for that."

Kate shook her head, looking at the paper he'd handed out. "Hey, guys," she said, an idea forming in her mind. "I've got a question."

"Yeah?" Kevin said.

"If you skipped school and were later found dead in an alley, how would you have gotten there?"

They looked up at her, focused for the first time that day on something other than basketball. "That's a pretty morbid question," Javier said. "Mr. Ramirez isn't having an effect on you?" He and Kevin chuckled.

"I heard that," their teacher called from the other side of the room, effectively wiping the grins off their faces.

"I swear, that dude's got super hearing!" Javier muttered.

"Guys. Answer the question, please?"

"Okay, well, I don't know why I ditched school. Why am I ditching? For fun, or for some other reason?"

Kate thought about that. "I don't know."

The bell rang, and Mr. Ramirez called for silence. As soon as the class hushed, they heard a scream ring out just downstairs. Mr. Ramirez frowned. "That was weird. Anyways, today we're going to work on the Freudian slip concept that we talked about last class, and then I'll give you time to finish your projects-"

He was cut off by the PA, which blared the voice of the vice principal. "Attention, this is a lockdown. This is not a drill."

Luckily, a class of psychology students was pretty level-headed and they immediately stood and crowded into the corner. "I wonder what's going on," Kevin whispered, sitting next to her as Mr. Ramirez turned off the lights and joined them.

"I have no idea," Kate replied. Within minutes they heard sirens, which stopped right below their window.

"Teachers," a woman from the administration office announced over the speaker, "please take roll. Call if any of your students are missing."

Mr. Ramirez went down his sheet. "I think everyone's here-"

"Joey's not," a kid called, smashed against the wall. "But he should be, I saw him today."

"Dangit, Joey, where is that kid?" Mr. Ramirez muttered.

Frantic knocking rang out through the room; everyone jumped. "Calm down, it's Joey," Mr. Ramirez said.

"How does he know?" Javier wondered disbelievingly.

"Because I know," the teacher snapped. He let the missing student in, even though it was against the rules. Joey hurried inside.

"Something crazy's going on!" he stammered, joining the rest of the class in the corner. "There's a whole bunch of cops storming the place, and I heard 'em yelling about a body. I think they found someone killed in the school!"

Everyone began whispering amonst themselves, but Kate couldn't seem to focus on anything. Her heart sped up and breathing was difficult.

"Dude, that's so freaky," Javier whispered.

"I wonder who it is," Kevin said.

"Oh, yeah, whoa, I didn't even think about that. Hope it wasn't anybody I know."

"You think it's a student? Man, that's sick!"

"It _is_ a student," Kate murmured. "It's-"

There was another knock. "Open up, it's okay, we're the police. We're looking for Katherine Beckett."

"What'd you do, kill somebody?" Javier asked.

She made a face at him as she stood up and left the classroom, surrounded by three armed officers.

Even compared to last night, compared to anything illegal she'd ever done (just because she'd never been caught didn't mean she'd never done anything), Kate had never in her life felt more like a criminal.

Nothing like being marched out of a lockdown by cops to make you feel guilty for a murder you'd been trying to solve.

**A/N: Hope you liked this chapter! Don't forget to let me know what you thought! (:**

**I don't know if anybody's seen the pictures of Nathan and Stana filming on the beach/pier in Santa Monica, but I know I can't wait for the LA episode! :D**


	15. Chapter 15: No Consolation

**A/N: I'm reallyreallyreally sorry about not updating before this. I had this chapter written a long time ago but I needed to edit it to make it awesome but I never had time. I sincerely hope you like this chapter to make up for it.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, because if I did I'd know what's going to happen over the next three episodes. As it is I'm dying, so I think we can safely assume I don't have any more clue than you. )

Kate strode down the hallway she'd been ordered to. Two of the chairs outside the vice principal's office were occupied when she walked up. She was familiar with this particular spot in the school, having visited on occasion. Needless to say, they had not been social visits.

She wondered what type of visit this qualified as.

Rick and Maddie looked up as she approached. They both watched as she sank into the itchy red chair, trying to get comfortable leaning against the wooden arms and failing. But then again Kate knew it was futile; she'd never once been comfortable in a chair at school.

Rick crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back as well. "I'm guessing they found her," he muttered, just a little resentful.

Kate nodded, mimicking his actions. "Looks that way."

"Sure hope we get an apology," Maddie mumbled, her chin in her hands out of boredom. "I mean, after accusing us of taking drugs or something, I think they sort of owe it to us."

"We're teenagers," Kate snapped bitterly. "They don't owe us anything. We were probably doing something else and therefore were just as guilty. Does anyone else hate-slash-find incompetent the penal system in this city? And before you ask, no, I'm pretty sure that was not proper grammar."

In response to her question, both Rick and Maddie raised a hand, agreeing.

Detective Harding strolled around the corner. He looked tired, but that did not gain him any sympathy from the teens.

"So I hear your boys found a body," Kate said coolly.

"Yeah, we found Melanie," he replied remorsefully.

Kate glanced at Rick and Maddie, then back at the detective. "Hmm, imagine that. Kind of complies with what we told you, two days ago."

Detective Harding scowled. He was neither used to nor pleased about being one-upped by a few kids, especially kids he'd recently arrested. "Have you been investigating this on your own?"

"Depends. Is it illegal?" Maddie asked.

"Depends. What did you do? Wait..." He paused, looking between Rick and Kate quickly. "That's what you were doing in the office. What were you doing, exactly?"

"Attendance records," Kate replied. "Were you aware that Melanie's parents have been calling her in sick for the past few days? It's totally excused."

Harding had been about to yell for looking at school records without permission, but he paused. "What?"

Kate raised an eyebrow pointedly, and he got it. He had indeed heard.

The detective ran a hand over his face, then pulled a chair in from of them. "I need to know everything you found out."

They recounted talking to Josh, the drama kids, the Evanescence people, and the attendance records.

"Well, we're lucky to have you kids, I suppose," Harding sighed. "Even if we'd found her, without you we wouldn't know where the crime scene itself is. Though I don't know how it'll help—it's probably either been cleaned or tainted by now." He stood and put his chair back against the wall. "Thank you, that'll be it."

Kate stood up quickly as well. "What? No, we are helping on this case. Do you think you'll ever get the students to open up to you? You need our help. Have you ever interviewed kids?"

"No, I've never had reason to," Harding replied.

"Exactly. They're not going to respond well to being interrogated, it's got to be undercover. And we can do that. Trust me."

"Fine," Harding snapped, though Kate detected a bit of relief. She realized he really hadn't wanted to deal with teenagers.

"Can we see the body?" Rick asked, hesitantly now that the detective had agreed to let them help. He didn't want to be kicked off his first case. "Like where you found her?"

"Well, I suppose. It's necessary. Follow me. However, if you touch anything, you'll be back in class so quickly you won't even see it coming."

Kate tried very hard not to grin. "So that means don't touch, Rick," she said, lips pursed.

Maddie squeezed Rick's hand and smiled up at him. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't."

Kate rolled her eyes; Harding looked mildly disgusted. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You see what I have to live with?" she asked off-handedly, though she felt a twinge watching them.

"Yeah, well..." Harding trailed off. "Just be warned, she's been dead for forty-eight hours, so she's not pretty."

He led them back the way they'd come, delving deeper towards the epicenter of the police perimeter, where cops were circling like hawks, examining the body.

"It's fine, Dave, these kids are helping on the case," Harding told one of the guards, though to the teens he sounded more resentful than grateful. Dave, for his part, did not look happy about letting kids into an active crime scene.

They approached a supply closet that had been opened by a student; a tiny girl sat to the side against the wall, sobbing and holding herself tightly. Most likely a freshman, she'd probably been sent by a teacher to get some tissues or wipes.

And lying on the ground through the doorway was Melanie. Her facial features were slightly distorted by the decay that had occurred over the past few days, and her clothes were caked with blood. Her hair was also matted and tinged with dark burgundy. Maddie cringed instinctively at the sight, but Rick watched in morbid fascination. Kate, meanwhile, stared for a moment sadly, before she turned to the detective to ask, "How did she die?"

"Knife wounds, though I think she may have been knocked out first to prevent her from struggling," the ME called from the ground. "Did I not already explain this?" he asked, standing to face them.

Harding sighed in exasperation. "Kids, this is Dr. Perlmutter. Perlmutter, Katherine Beckett, Richard Rodgers, Madison Queller."

"Kate," she interrupted.

"Rick," he added just afterwards.

"Maddie," the blond corrected.

"Uh-huh. And why are there teenagers on my crime scene, Detective Harding?" But meanwhile the ME winked at them when Harding wasn't looking. The man was too flabbergasted to pay any attention. "Anyways, she has knife slashes across her hands, arms, neck, and shoulders, really shallow wounds, and obviously purposeful, like a ritual or something. She also got a bump on her head from something, but I can't see it too well because she has a lot of hair, but once I get her back to the lab I should get a better look at it, and I'll have a closer time of death. Other than, you know, Tuesday morning, which I only have thanks to these kids, thank you very much. And I'll check out her head, but I'm guessing that was the COD, not the knife wounds. Like I said, they're too shallow. And in that case, they're also portmortem."

"Interesting," Kate said, "why would someone carve something into someone's skin after they're dead?"

"To send a message," Rick said, at the same time as Harding. Rick barely seemed to notice, but Harding scowled again.

"You are not a very good-humored person, are you?" Kate asked innocently. It was mocking, and Harding realized it, but there was no way to prove it, and he knew it. His scowl deepened.

Perlmutter clapped him on the back. "You know what, Arnie? I like these kids. You guys are welcome at my morgue any time you want. You need help on this, just come on down and talk to me."

They grinned and started talking to him about his job. Harding rolled his eyes and walked away. Rick heard him remark to the guard Dave, "He would connect to a bunch of teenagers almost as well as he does to dead people."

Evidently the ME was not known for being a people person. But Harding didn't seem like a huge crowd pleaser either.

Rick groaned to himself. All the antisocial, workaholic adults in New York would end up in homicide.

They'd removed Melanie's body from the school and all the students had been released, but instead of leaving Kate caught Maddie's hand and dragged her down the hallway. "Where are we going? We have a murder to solve."

"Yeah, but we need to do something." The drama room was locked, the gym was being used by the badminton team, and even the costume and makeup room was dark. Rick and Maddie followed Kate silently through the back door of the auditorium. The entire cast of the show was seated in the front several rows and Mr. Anthony was onstage, standing in front of the castle sets with a microphone and a solemn, pained expression on his face.

"—experienced a tragic loss today," he was saying. Rather than his usual joyous booming tones, his voice was low and cracked. "Melanie was a good friend to all of us, and she will be missed in this theater. I think, in light of Melanie's murder, the show must be cancelled—"

Kate was glad she'd arrived when she had. "What?" she called out.

"Becks," Maddie hissed, but Kate was stubborn, shrugging her friend's restraining hand off her shoulder. She ran to the front and jumped onto the stage.

"Mr. Anthony. I know it would seem like you shouldn't continue, but wouldn't Melanie have wanted the show to go on? Wouldn't it be so much better to honor her memory by continuing, especially after all the hard work all of these people and Melanie have put into this show over the past few months? I know it's hard, but you can't throw that all away."

"Kate, doesn't it seem irreverent to—"

"No, it doesn't," Kate responded instantly. "It seems like a good way to honor her memory."

"She's right." A boy leapt from the front row, straight onto the stage. Tanner. Kate almost groaned. "Mel would never have wanted us to give up the show if she died. None of us would. I mean, I'm sure none of us have ever really considered it," he turned to face the cast dramatically, "but I want you to consider it now. This show would be nothing without each individual person, but even if one person is missing physically, because of whatever is preventing them from being here, whether it be illness or homework or family or even death, all of us are here in spirit. So Melanie is still here, even though she's gone. And if she could talk to us right now, she would say that the show must go on!"

Kate thought the ending was pretty trite, but it seemed to work; everyone in the theater went from crying to a standing ovation within seconds. She stepped to the side to talk to Mr. Anthony, who looked fairly shell-shocked at his students' reaction.

"Hey, Mr. Anthony," she said gently, hugging him. "How are you holding up?"

"Why would anyone do this?" he wondered.

"Because people are mean," she replied. "But the police will bring her killer to justice. They'll find the person. Don't worry."

"You should've tried out, Katie. You would've been good. You could've been Belle."

Kate shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, Mr. A. I'm sure Melanie has me beat, voice-wise. Allison too. But I'll try out next year, I promise."

"Hey, Kate," Tanner said, gliding up to her. "Want to come to the cast party later? Since it's the last day before opening night and it's tradition, if we don't have it the show won't go as well. You remember last year's party, right?"

Kate smiled weakly. "Sure thing, Tanner."

"Great! See you at my place later?"

"'Course. Um, can Maddie and Rick come?"

"Yeah! Catch you later!"

He sauntered off. Kate watched him leave. "He doesn't seem very emotional," she commented critically.

"Trust me, this is how he's coping. He won't look sad out here, he's got to keep up morale, he's one of the leads. But he was crying under my desk five minutes ago."

Kate wondered how much makeup he'd put on to make him look that good after crying, at the same time remembering when the whole cast had played hide and seek last year and the two of them had hidden under Mr. Anthony's desk. She stared after him for a moment, before turning back to the teacher. "I'll see you later, I have some stuff to do."

"Bye, Katie."

She walked back to the door. "We were invited to the cast party at Tanner's house tonight."

"Fun," Maddie smirked.

"But for now we should head down to the morgue, because I feel like Perlmutter is going to be our best link to new information."

"Got that right," Rick agreed. "Harding won't tell us anything until he needs us."

"So let's go make him need us," Kate finished, before turning on her heel to exit the theater.

**A/N: I may not update for a while after this due to my AP exam being in two weeks. But I will try to find some time, I promise. I didn't forget about this. Latest I'll post is the weekend of the 14 or 15. If I haven't updated by then, feel free to attack me with PMs to make me update. As always, feedback is appreciated; even if you just want to complain about the long wait, guilt-tripping is fine. :)**

You ready for the May 2 episode? I know I am.


	16. Chapter 16: Meet the Family

**A/N: I'm a bad person, I know. This is a week late, I know. It's not extremely long, I know. But I hope you like it anyways.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

The air was chilled in the morgue when they entered. Melanie was on the table, Perlmutter bent over her head

"Hey, Dr. Perlmutter," Kate said. "You find anything?"

"Hey, kids," he said absently, focused on the body. "Yeah. She was hit over he head, and that was definitely cause of death, like I said."

"Like you said," Kate agreed. "What did they hit her with?"

"Hmm, you've got a detective brain," he observed. "A good detective brain. She was hit with a blunt object, and if it was an inch off in any direction she would've survived. I'll have to run more tests to figure out what the object was, but it was not metal, I can tell you that. I don't even think it was that heavy. Someone got lucky."

"Or it was an accident," Rick suggested.

"Or someone knew what they were doing," Kate countered.

"So we have three different murder degrees, and we're no closer to finding a motive." The door swung open and Detective Harding entered. "Why are they here?"

"I called them when I called you," Perlmutter lied. "I guess they were closer."

Harding frowned but dismissed it.

"What have you got?"

Perlmutter repeated what he had told the teens.

"So what about the cuts?" Kate asked once he was done.

"Thought you'd never ask. They're all postmortem, and they were all made with a common steak knife. There's definitely some pattern, they look like Asian characters."

"They're not Mandarin or Japanese," Maddie commented. Everyone looked at her. "What? Honors Asian Studies, best class ever."

"Can you tell what they are?" Harding asked, for once generally interested in what she had to say."

"It looks like...Korean, maybe?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure, we don't learn each individual language. I could ask my teacher."

"No, that's alright, we've got contacts," Harding said.

"Wait, hang on, I've learned this one." Her eyes flickered up to catch his eye apologetically. "It looks a little different etched on human skin. It's Korean for cat. And wait—it changes to Japanese here, this symbol. And that's Vietnamese."

"Do you know what they mean?" Harding wondered.

"We learned basic symbols of various languages in my class, I recognize a lot of these. I forget what each means, though. Do you have a camera? Or just pictures?"

Perlmutter nodded. "That stack is a bunch of Polaroids, each symbol is in there."

"I can't take them? Can I write on them?"

"Yeah, go ahead, I can take more if I need them."

She thanked him and placed the large stack in her bag.

"How long would it have taken to carve those?" Kate wondered.

"A long time, they're pretty precise," Maddie commented. "And there are a lot of them. It takes a a minute to draw each on paper, I would imagine it's even harder with a knife."

"Another thing," Perlmutter said, "she was posed. Her eyes and mouth were open when she died."

"So someone made her look like that," Harding said.

"Yeah, right after she died too. She hadn't gone into rigor mortis yet," Perlmutter added.

"So someone was in the right frame of mind to stick around," Kate nodded. "So...what does that mean?"

"That means that either your killer is a Vulcan," Perlmutter replied.

"Which would be unrealistic because a Vulcan would say that murder is irrational," Rick interrupted.

"And because, you know, they're not real," Kate pointed out.

"Don't kill my fantasy."

"-or this was premeditated," Harding said. "Someone planned to kill Melanie Cross."

* * *

As they left the morgue, Harding stopped them. "I'm going to talk to Melanie's parents, I wondered if you wanted to come."

Maddie shook her head. "I'm going to take these pictures to the library and figure out what they mean and see if there's a pattern."

"I'll go with her," Rick said quickly.

Kate rolled her eyes. "I want to talk to them."

"Okay, they live around here, so it's pretty close. I can drop you off at the library afterwards."

"Great, I'll see you guys later," she said. They took off to the library while she drove with the detective to the Cross' house.

Melanie lived in a relatively nice apartment; their district was one of the richer areas of the city. When they rang the doorbell, a thin blond woman greeted them.

"Can I help you?"

Harding held up his badge. "Detective Harding, NYPD. Mrs. Cross?"

"What's wrong, officer?" Melanie's mom asked, forcing a smile.

"Your daughter was obviously a better actor than you," he said. "Don't play games with me, Mrs. Cross. I know that you were covering up Melanie's murder."

"Her murder?" she exclaimed. "What are you talking about?"

"She's dead, Mrs. Cross, and you've been calling her in sick for the past three days," Harding snapped.

"They-they said she was alive," Mrs. Cross murmured. "They said if I didn't let anyone know then I'd get her back."

"Mrs. Cross?" Kate said cautiously. "Who was it?"

"W-who are you?" she sniffled.

"I'm Kate, I go to Melanie's school."

"She, um, found her body on Tuesday," Harding said uncomfortably.

"Oh my-oh my God," Mrs. Cross whispered. "She died on Tuesday? Why am I just hearing about this? Why haven't I been called?"

"Well, she found the body on Tuesday; when we arrived her body was gone, as was all evidence, so we didn't think they were telling the truth."

"Ah, well." Kate didn't think she was really listening. "Maybe...maybe you'd better come in."

They entered into the hallway and through to the living room. "Please, ha-have a seat."

They sat on the sofa and she sat across from them, tears welling in her eyes.

"She's...she's gone? Really?"

At the same moment Detective Harding and Kate said, "I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Cross."

Detective Harding frowned at her, and she shrugged.

"How did she die?"

"Well, we normally don't-"

"She was hit on the head," Kate interrupted, kindly but firmly. "They hit her in a specific spot. She died instantly."

"Katherine!" Harding hissed.

"Kate," she corrected, then continued, "She didn't suffer, Mrs. Cross."

Mrs. Cross nodded. "Thank you, Kate."

"Um, Mrs. Cross, do you know what Melanie would've been doing out of school?" the detective asked.

"No, no, I don't know. She left while I was eating breakfast, told me she'd see me after school, but she never came home. I got a note, it was slipped under the door when I got home. It said that I had to pretend she was sick if I wanted her back."

"For how long?" Kate frowned.

"Until they told me otherwise," she replied, slowly regaining composure.

"Which means they're still in the city," Kate said, turning to Harding. "They wouldn't use the postal service, would they?"

"The letter wasn't postmarked," Mrs. Cross added.

"Well that's reassuring," Harding nodded. "Do you still have the letter?"

"No, it told me to shred it and put it in the trash."

"Okay, thank you for the help, Mrs. Cross."

"Mrs. Cross, what happened to Melanie's dad?" Kate asked cautiously.

"My husband died eight years ago," Mrs. Cross replied, tears rolling again. "Mel was the only one I had left."

"We're truly sorry," Harding repeated. They stood to leave. Mrs. Cross didn't stand with them, instead sitting there and dropping her face into her hands and starting to sob.

* * *

The library was completely silent, filled with kids trying to catch up on homework and older people reading. Rick had grabbed a book and sat down beside Maddie, who was deeply engrossed in her pictures and notes. However, even Treasure Island couldn't hold his attention, and he was ready to give up when Maddie leaned back and muttered, "Wait..."

"What?"

She frowned. "This doesn't make sense. These are all random words, and they're not in any coherent order. This means rice dog bathroom. They don't mean anything."

"No secret code or anything?"

"Not that I can tell. It's like they didn't pick them for their meaning."

"What for, then?"

"Okay, even I know that 'What for' is really bad grammar," Maddie snorted, then sobered. "The best I can figure is that they did it to either be really creepy or to show a complete disregard for the human body."

"That's just weird. Did you get through all of them?"

"Yeah." She pulled her hair back and put it up with a pink rubber band. "God, I'm tired."

He snorted. "You're tired? I was up in the slammer until three in the morning."

"And I was up worrying about you guys in the slammer," she grinned.

"And we're all okay, so what's it matter?" He leaned over and kissed her, and she immediately returned the action. They sat there happily for a moment and probably would've stayed there until closing time, but a librarian hissed, "You two, knock it off," and they broke away giggling.

Kate had stopped in her tracks, walking through the shelves. Before either of her friends could spot her, she turned and stalked outside, gaining speed as she pushed open the heavy wooden doors. The moment she was outside she went flying into someone and both of them fell, the other person's books thudding to the floor.

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry," Kate said hurriedly, gathering up the books.

"It's fine, don't worry about it." When she looked up she realized who it was.

"Josh?"

"Oh, hey Kate!" he smiled weakly. "How are you today?"

"Me? How about you? I mean, Melanie-"

"Yeah." He shrugged, looking at a point above her shoulder. She shook her head and gave him a hug.

"You knew, didn't you? They sent you a note, didn't they?"

He nodded and she rubbed his arms comfortingly.

"They're going to find out who killed her," she said determinedly. He didn't say anything, and she handed him the books. "Your mom?" she asked, glancing at the titles.

"Yeah."

"Hey, you wanna come to the show party tonight? It's at Tanner's house, tonight. Take your mind off things?"

He looked at her. "Well, I guess."

"Great, I'll see you there," she smiled.

He waved and jogged into the library. As soon as he was out of sight her smile disappeared. She pursed her lips, turned, and sprinted down the steps, across the street, and into Central Park.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to review! Comments, critiques, ranting about how long it took me to update, communal wailing over the four month wait until season 4... **

**Yeah, I mean, two words: SEASON FINALE. 'Nuf said. **


	17. Chapter 17: Katie

**A/N: This is for some reason took me a while to write. Luckily I had some time today where I had nothing else to do so I was able to finally get it written. Hope you like it!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

She ran. Her sneakers slapped the pavement under her feet. Her lungs gasped for air. She didn't feel it, however, her mind felt detached from her body.

Central Park could be dangerous, but Kate had been there too often to be scared. She knew all the escape routes.

She didn't like him.

_She didn't like him._

And she definitely wasn't jealous.

The sun was low behind the skyscrapers, peeking through on occasion and flashing in her face. She passed people walking their dogs or jogging but didn't really see them. She accidentally plowed between a couple holding hands and was moving too fast to stop and apologize, even after the guy shouted, you're going to get shot in here, doing that!" She doubted it, but she appreciated the warning.

She slowed down and stopped deeper into the park, bent slightly, choking out a cough. She put her hands over her face and pushed her hair back away from her eyes. Everything was so crazy. The were investigating a murder, for crying out loud. They were teenagers. She shook her head. She knew she never would've given it up, though. She didn't let go of things. She could hold a grudge forever, she knew. She hated changing her mind about things. She stuck with her opinion despite all proof that she was wrong. She'd know that she was wrong, of course. She would just never admit it.

She sunk onto a bench, her head in her hands. It was getting late, she knew. The sun had fallen behind the buildings long ago and the park was growing dark. Kate Beckett had never been afraid of the dark, just afraid of the unknown. Central Park at night? Who knew what could be waiting for her? After a minute she stood up, but her vision spun. She blinked and grabbed onto the back of the bench for support. When she could see again, she looked down the path both ways. She didn't know which way she'd come. In her confusion of emotions she hadn't been paying attention. Which side had the bench been on when she'd approached? She couldn't remember.

She sat back down, angrily wiping away the frustrated tears that began running down her cheeks. How was she going to get home? Who knew how much this path wound around before it came out on the street? She had no idea where the sun was so she couldn't use it as a reference point. She'd entered from the library, right? Which side was the library on? All the directions were jumbled in her mind.

She heard gravel crunch to her left and stood up quickly. Chances were it was a jogger, but it could've just as easily been someone far less friendly. He sounded like only one person, but she had to ready for anything. The person rounded the curve and she saw it was a runner. She relaxed and walked towards him, planning to ask for directions, then stopped in her tracks. "Tanner?"

"Kate?" he called, squinting. She laughed internally. He'd always had horrible eyesight but refused to get glasses. She'd heard him insist more than once that it would mess with his style. To tease him she'd always replied, "What style?" He'd acted wounded but laughed.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for the party?" she asked.

"Everything's already ready," he replied. "Ritual run, remember?" Oh right. She'd forgotten how superstitious and ritualistic actors were. He moved closer, noticing for the first time her red eyes. "Oh, God, Katie, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's nothing, I was just lost for a second. I'm fine now." She sat down on the bench, trying to avoid his eye, but he sat down next to her.

"It's not nothing," he countered seriously. "You don't cry over nothing." He watched her in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Tanner," she muttered warningly.

"What is it?"

She shook her head and didn't answer. "You nervous?" she asked, changing the subject.

"For the show?" he grinned. "What do you think?"

"Yes."

"Oh, yeah." he agreed, leaning back against the bench. "I'm always nervous. I'm worried that Allison won't remember all her stuff. I haven't practiced enough with her. I was good with Mel, comfortable. We worked well together, but yesterday was the first time I'd ever practiced with Allison, except for during callbacks I did one scene with her." He shrugged. "I hope we're good enough actors because we have zero chemistry."

"You'll be great."

"I hope so."

Hoping to keep the conversation off of her, she nodded to his hair. "You changed again." It was dark brown, rather than black, with tan streaks.

"Yeah, I had to for the last scene. I have to look like royalty. No streaks, no piercings. Mr. Anthony's rule."

"I know. And that basically just applies to you, doesn't it?"

"No! I just made the rule. And I keep forgetting you were a drama geek for a semester."

She chuckled. "Don't you drama geeks hate that term?"

"Only when other people use it," he shrugged. "How come you didn't come back this year? We made the leads as _freshmen_."

"There weren't many upperclassmen who could sing last year." She shrugged. "Still aren't."

"Katie. Were you really avoiding me?"

"Don't call me Katie. You dumped me, Tanner."

"We both agreed-"

"No, Tanner. I never agreed to anything. You were the one who decided that we weren't working. You made up my mind for me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't—can I make it up to you somehow?"

"It's fine, Tanner. Everything is fine. I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

He pursed his lips. "I do worry about you. Everyday I wonder how you are. You're not as strong as you think you are."

_"Tanner. I'm fine."_

"You're not fine. You keep using my name every time you say something. That's your warning sign, remember? I know you. Something's wrong."

"I just got lost. Okay? I'm okay now. Stop trying to psychoanalyze me." She leaned back and crossed her arms.

"Okay, okay. Come on, we should get back. Have you gone home since before school?"

"No," she admitted. "I'm hungry though, I'm sure my parents are waiting for me anyways. They probably have dinner ready."

They stood and Tanner accompanied her to her building. "Thanks," she muttered. He surprised her by leaning over and kissing her on the cheek.

"No problem," he grinned. "I'll see you in a few hours?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah." He started to walk away but she called quickly, "Hey, I invited Melanie's boyfriend, Josh Davidson. I hope that's okay."

"Of course," he said. "I was going to invite him myself, since he's always at rehearsal and everything even if he's not part of the cast, but I didn't see him at school. I usually do, but I didn't realize until today that it was really because of..."

"Melanie," Kate finished for him. He nodded.

"Well, I'll see you." He left and Kate ran up the stairs, letting herself in with her key.

"I'm home," she called. "Anybody here?"

"Kate?"

"Mom?" She ran into the kitchen and hugged her mother tightly.

"Hey, sweetie, are you okay?" Mrs. Beckett asked, wrapping on arm around her and stirring a pot of marinara sauce with the other. Kate looked up at her. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Did you...did you hear about the girl—at my school?"

"Yes, it's awful, Mrs. Queller called and told me about it. Are you upset about it? You didn't know her, did you?"

Kate didn't really think her mother's babying was necessary, but she didn't comment. "Not well, I had a class with her and she was in the musical. Did you hear how she was killed?"

"No, what happened?"

"She was hit on the head, it was a lucky shot," Kate told her, sitting on a stool as her mother cooked. "The killer carved Asian characters into her skin, it was creepy."

"You saw her body?"

"Yeah, I...I found her body."

"I thought a freshman found her body?"

"Well...today. But she died on Tuesday. After school, me, Maddie, and my friend Rick-"

"Maddie, my friend Rick, and I," Mrs. Beckett corrected, "but go on."

"We were walking to the library, and I know you hate it but we took the back alleys because a lot of people were out," her mom pursed her lips disapprovingly but didn't comment, "and we found her body. The police came and we were waiting on the curb because we were freaked out but when we went into the alley again she was gone. The police didn't believe she'd ever been there, but we sort of..." she hesitated, then continued, "we sort of investigated the case for the past few days on our own."

"That was a dangerous thing to do, Kate."

"I'm sorry, I know people get killed because they're in with killers and if you dig into their life you'll get in with killers too, but I just couldn't let it go."

Her mother smiled and reached across the counter to pat her hand. "I'm proud of you. You did what you knew was right. But I guess the police have it now, right?"

Kate had not been surprised by her mother's reaction. "Well, not exactly," she said. "We found out...a lot. We convinces Detective Harding to let us help out, since we know all the people involved and he's not exactly..."

"Empathetic with teens?"

"You know him?"

"I've worked with him a few times. Mean scowl, little eyes, kind of stumpy?"

Kate grinned. "That's him."

"He was the arresting officer on a few cases I've worked. He's smart, and a good cop, but he's definitely not a 'people person'." Mrs. Beckett frowned. "And he let you work with him?"

"I know, I was surprised too. But I really don't think he wanted to talk to a bunch of kids."

"So how's the case going?"

"I don't know. We still don't know much. It's hard."

"They all are."

Kate watched her finish up dinner for a moment then said, "Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Tanner's having a party for the cast and crew of the musical and he invited me. I know it's a school night and everything, but since all of Melanie's friends will be there...and Tanner really wanted me to come."

"Tanner, your-ex-boyfriend-Tanner?"

"Yeah, Mom," Kate sighed. She'd tried to slip his name in as casually as possible, but her mother never missed a thing. Still, it beat asking her dad, who was far more protective. "Please?"

"Won't you be tired tomorrow?"

"No, I'm good with little amounts of sleep and I don't have anything important tomorrow. Besides, that's what coffee's for."

"You're not allowed to drink coffee."

"Mom," Kate whined, exasperated.

"Don't complain when I tell you 'I told you so'," her mom said, and Kate grinned. That was a yes.

"Is dinner almost ready?"

"Yes. Could you go and get your father, tell him food's on the table?"

"Sure?" She slid off the chair and skipped into the office. Her father was reading over some report, making notes on the paper.

"Hey, Dad," she said as she entered.

He looked up and smiled at her. "Hey, Katie, how are you?"

"I'm good, how was work?"

"Just like every other day: normal. How was school?"

"Not like every other day," she replied. "A girl in my English class was murdered."

"Oh, I heard, Mom told me," he said, frowning. "Did they figure out who did it?"

"Not yet," she replied. "Working on it. Mom says dinner's ready."

"Great, I've been smelling it for half an hour, my stomach's been very unhappy about it." As if to prove his point it growled. Kate laughed. "Come on, sweetheart," he said, standing and putting an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go eat."

**A/N: Hopefully the next chapter won't be as difficult to write as this one was, haha. Anyways, don't forget to let me know what you thought!**


	18. Chapter 18: Cherry Flavored

**A/N: So I seriously enjoyed writing this chapter. Have to admit, it was fun. Hope you like reading it! It didn't take me quite as long to write...this is why I need school. Most of this was written during summer chem class today. Yep... xD**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

Kate sauntered into the party, which was already in full swing. In her skin tight leather jacket and five inch stilettos, both of which she'd snuck out under her parents noses, she stalked past the people dancing in the entryway and entered the living room, which was jam-packed with cast and crew members. Kate had discovered as a freshman in the play just how much those kids, even the ones who preferred being behind the scenes over center stage, loved to party. She grinned as they formed a circle in the middle of the room around two cast members performing one of the ensemble's dance numbers to whatever music was playing; the cheering drowned out even the blasting music. She moved around the crowd of bodies and slipped into the next room, which was the kitchen and family room.

People sat on stools or stood against cabinets, drinking and kissing, glasses and bottles on the counters full of what she identified as beer and much stronger stuff too. She was pretty sure she could see people through the dining room doing shots. She was almost tempted to join them but she knew on a weeknight her mom would be waiting up for her and last time she came in drunk from a party she'd been grounded for six months. No drinks tonight, even though she could've taken both the heavy guys in there are kept going once they'd drank themselves into an alcohol-induced stupor.

Just then the king of the castle swaggered through the door that led upstairs. "Hey, Katie!" Tanner slurred, and she didn't bother telling him not to call her Katie—he was so gone when he woke up in the morning he probably wouldn't even remember her being there. She shook her head and grinned.

"Having fun, Tanner?" she yelled over the noise.

"Oh, yeah! Want some?" He offered her a red cup filled with amber liquid, which sloshed over the side, narrowly missing her shoes.

She took it from him and set it on the counter. "Of course, thanks. Enjoy your party!"

She snorted as he staggered away, then she grabbed a stool and sat down, helping herself to chips and dip.

"Hey, Kate?" She looked around to see Josh behind her. He smiled when he saw that it was, in fact, the person he'd been looking for. "Hey, I thought it was you. It's pretty dark."

"Yeah, the drama kids really like the dark. Reminds them of the theater," she joked.

"Yeah. You look nice," he said. "Your hair is different. Not bad though! It looks nice too."

She tried very hard not to laugh. "Thanks. You enjoying the party?"

He nodded. "It's fun. Did you get here, like, recently?"

"Yeah, I just got here. My parents, you know."

"Yeah, I snuck out too," he admitted.

"Oh," she said. "I didn't sneak out, my mom said I could go, but they just fuss over me like I'm going to get myself killed or something. It's ridiculous."

He nodded. "My dad never lets me out of the house. He's a doctor and he always gets kids who get into accidents or pass out because they're drinking at a party or get info fights, so he's way too protective." He snorted. "Imagine if I had a sister."

Kate snorted.

"Well, I'm gonna go, one of my buddies is on crew and he says there's a dance-off being organized, said they're both pretty hammered. Should be funny. Wanna join me?"

"No, thanks," she smiled. "I'm actually looking for somebody."

He shrugged and walked away, waving goodbye. She turned towards the TV, which was playing a movie she didn't recognize.

"Hello, there, Detective," someone said, sliding onto the stool beside her. She jumped and turned.

"My God, Rick, jeez, what're you trying to do?"

He grinned at her. "Hey, Kate, you're late."

"Am not. I can show up whenever I damn well please," she answered snappishly. Maybe she was sick of his teasing, maybe she was tired, maybe she was mad at him for something she'd never admit. She sounded five, arguing, but at this point she didn't care. She crossed her leg over her knee and kicked him lightly in the shin with her heel. He raised an eyebrow resentfully, wounded.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "You're at a party and you're being all mean and upset."

She cursed his seeming ability to know what she was thinking so often. She changed the subject. "So where's your girlfriend?"

"What are you talking about?"

She spun to face him, leaning over and holding into her stool in one hand and jabbing a finger in his face with the other. "Don't play innocent, I saw you two in the library."

A flash of alarm swept over the blue of his eyes for a moment before vanishing. "We're allowed to kiss whoever we like. Why do you hate me so much? All you've done since I met you is complain about how annoying I am. I'm not a bad person, and I'm not trying to take advantage of Maddie, so why do you care?"

Now it was her eyes that held alarm, but she wasn't sure he noticed. "I don't know, Kate, I just don't know," he continued. In an effort to avoid his gaze she looked over his shoulder and almost fell off the stool in shock. She grabbed onto the counter to steady herself. Rick furrowed his brow as her eyes lost focus. "Kate? Kate?" He waved a hand in front of her face but she whacked it away. Without saying anything she stood and walked purposefully into the dining room, where a girl in a tank top was cheering on the kids doing shots, standing in the midst of the crowd. But Kate didn't join in; she stared at the girl's arms and shoulders, which were decorated in magenta marker with Asian symbols. Rick quickly stood up and followed her, jogging to catch up. "Is that-"

"Yes it is," she nodded.

She slid around the dining room table to reach the opposite. She tapped the pretty Asian girl on the shoulder. "Christine!" she shouted over the noise. The actress turned to grin at her.

"Hey, Kate, you wanna take these two down? They don't seem to have a good opponent to really put 'em out," she laughed. Christine must have had a few drinks herself, because it took her a few moments to notice how serious Kate's face was. "What's going on?"

"Can we maybe...talk to you? Like, not here?"

"Yeah, sure," the drunk girl nodded, smiling dreamily. Kate led her to the office, which seemed to be locked. "Lock pick," she demanded, holding out her hand for it. Rick set it in his hand from his wallet, and Kate let them in. Just as they were entering someone from near the front of the house shouted, "Cops!"

There were suddenly screams as everyone sprinted for the doors, wherever they were. Christine sort of giggled and swayed, then collapsed onto the couch next to Tanner's mom's desk. They spared a second from running out to glance at her. Rick looked at her, then back at Kate. "I always thought she'd be a lightweight."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, pulling him out, down the hallways and through another door. Rick found himself, as she quickly shut the door, shutting out any light, in a tiny square laundry room with just enough room for the washer and dryer on top of each other and shelves of linens to one side. In the small space they were pressed up against each other, and Kate could feel Rick's hot breath on her ear. She shivered. "Would you quit that?"

"Quit what?"

"Quit breathing!" she hissed, then shut up as someone ran past the door. She was suddenly glad she'd put on possibly more black eye makeup than they'd had on their faces the other night. This way on the off-chance that someone looked in the laundry they'd never be able to recognize her. Add that to her outfit, and the fact that her hair was pulled up how she'd never done it before, and she was pretty sure no adult would be able to pick her out of a lineup. Teenagers, on the other hand, would be able to recognize her from a glimpse, being a bit more used to things like that.

"You check every door!" they heard someone yell. "I don't want any stupid drunk kids left behind. Parents need to get some sort of security measures when they leave town, God."

Kate's heart sped up. They were going to check in here, it was a door, wasn't it? "Quick, get down, get under there, you can't see anything down there," she said, pointing towards the floor below the shelves, below the blankets. Rick scrambled to army crawl into the small space, which was actually larger than he'd expected; this section of the room must've been under the stairs. He pushed farther back, sweeping aside spiderwebs and dust. She dropped to the floor and inched under beside him. She pushed more dust in his direction, and he sneezed. "Rick," she hissed, but her breath blew the particles already in the air right into his face. As the door creaked open a stream of light snaked its way around the officer's silhouette, and Kate saw Rick open his mouth to give an enormous sneeze-

There was nothing else for it; she couldn't very well let them get caught. She abruptly pressed her mouth against his, and his eyes opened in shock, then he started to kiss her back. Kate felt her entire body tingle, all the way to her toes, as though she'd been given an electric shock. The door closed after a quick sweeping ray of light passed over the room, and Kate pulled away quickly, gasping for air. Rick seemed to be in shock. "Whoa," he breathed, and looked at her curiously. She felt her face grow hot and she blushed furiously. She was very glad it was almost too dark to see anything more than his eyes, though even that was almost too much.

"You were going to sneeze," she snapped in a hoarse whisper (the kiss had made her mouth go very dry).

"Just because I was about to sneeze doesn't mean I'm dying," he snorted.

"What?"

"You didn't need to give me mouth-to-mouth to stop me from sneezing!" he insisted pointedly.

"You were still going to sneeze if I'd put a hand over your mouth," she snapped. After everything that had happened tonight, she was in a very irritable mood. "And besides, my arms are kind of pinned at my sides, it would've taken too long to get them out to stop you, and it probably would've caused noise and they would've found U's and it would've been all for nothing."

She vaguely made out his face, licking his lips in the process. "Your lip gloss tastes like cherries."

She knew if anyone could see her face would have been bright red. "Shut up, would you?"

They waited quietly for the cops to disappear.

**A/N: Some more Caskett, hope it's appreciated! Hmm, I was wondering...is it still Caskett if he's not Castle yet? (But then again, is it even Castle fanfiction, lol?) Haha, hope to hear what you thought of it! I do appreciate every review I get and I try to reply to all of them, though I know I didn't get to some of them from chapter 16 I think it was, sorry about that. I do read all of them and appreciate the feedback. 3**

**Indy**


	19. Chapter 19: Don't Know Why

**A/N: I knew school keeps me writing, haha. This chapter definitely isn't as long, but I liked the ending and didn't want to add the next scene where this one left off because it works better this way, in my opinion. **

**Also, shout out and thanks to Chrysa Lite for creating the ship name Katick for before they're Castle and Beckett! :D **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

"Christine's involved," Kate said, striding purposefully into school the next morning. Maddie and Rick walked on either side of her, jogging to keep up with her quick, determined pace. "Did you see her last night?"

"To be honest last night's a little hazy all around," Maddie admitted.

"She had the same symbols on her arms in marker or something that Melanie had carved into her arms after she was killed," Kate informed her.

"Why would she do that if she killed her? That's practically giving yourself up to the cops," Maddie reasoned.

"She was drunk, what if she didn't know she was doing it? What if she didn't know she was doing it? What if someone else drew them on her after she was drunk, knowing it would through suspicious onto her. So that means the killer was at that party, and knows Christine pretty well," Kate explained. "You're right, it's pretty unlikely that Christine's the killer."

"Especially because Christine didn't write those symbols."

Kate stopped quickly and turned to Maddie. "What are you talking about?"

"Christine's in my Asian Studies class. She speaks fluent Vietnamese, Japanese, _and _Korean," Maddie answered. "The symbols on Melanie were completely gibberish any way you put the words together. All of them were random and simple introductory words. Only someone who'd taken one year of the languages at _most _would have written like that."

Kate frowned. "Well, we should talk to Christine, see what's up with the symbols and where hers came from."

"I'll talk to her, I have Asian first."

Kate nodded. "Great." Maddie ran off to class to hopefully catch their suspect before the bell, and Kate and Rick were left standing in the hallway, waiting to go to chemistry. The first bell hadn't even rung.

"So..." Rick said slowly. "Do you...like cherries, then?"

She rolled her eyes and walked away, and he scampered after her. "So what do we do while we wait for her?" he asked, more serious.

"We wait," she shrugged. "There's nothing else to do."

They probably could've walked with Maddie to class since their room was just down the hall from the Asian Studies room, and Kate wouldn't have felt quite so awkward, but they hadn't thought about it; there had been other things on their mind. So Maddie didn't know it when Kate suddenly put a hand on Rick's wrist to stop him outside her door. He looked down at her hand in surprise as she pulled him towards the door and they peeked inside through the glass window beside the door. Maddie and Christine were having an animated and friendly conversation, no doubt about the party, but Kate didn't pay much attention to them. Instead she scanned the other members of the class. "What?" Rick whispered.

She shook her head. "Just looking. There are a lot of drama kids in that class."

"Maybe the drama kids all like Asia," Rick replied.

She stepped away from the door and they hurried off to chemistry just before the bell.

* * *

"Ugh, this is honestly the longest, most boring class period I've ever lived through in my life," Rick complained.

"We could always make it more interesting," Kate smirked at him.

He raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, there's a container of potassium, there's a sink, I'll dumb a mixture of it over your head."

Rick rubbed a hand through his hair. "I like my hair not singed, thanks."

She shrugged and stretched. "Suit yourself."

He watched her curiously. Ever since last night she'd been on and off teasing him and awkwardly avoiding his gaze. He wasn't sure where they stood, but he was positive that he wasn't going to tell Maddie that they'd kissed. As a matter of fact, he didn't know where he stood with her either. His life had been easier before he got here, he thought. Less interesting, but a lot less complicated too.

"I want to know what Christine said. It's bugging me now," he whispered, and she shot him a glare.

"Thinking about it won't make the time go any faster," she reminded him.

"But this mystery, the murder, it's eating away at me. If we don't figure out who it is I'm going to go insane soon."

"Not like you're not already."

"Seriously! Isn't it killing you, not knowing who did it?" He folded his arms. "I _need _to know who it is, even if it ends up being really sad or pointless. At this point...we don't even have a motivation. Melanie wasn't some drugged up antisocial weirdo, and she wasn't some mean girl. She was your average drama geek and she had a good life. How did she end up dead?"

"I don't know, Rick, you tell me," she snapped at him, turning so they were nose to nose. Irked as she was, she didn't even register this fact, nor did she care. "I don't have any more information than you. You don't think I don't want to know as much as you do? I actually knew her, she was honestly one of the nicest people I've ever met. I didn't know her well, but we talked in English, and she was in my math class last year. I want to get to the bottom of this maybe more than you do!"

She shot him a final glare and turned to face back towards the front.

The teacher continued to lecture and he yawned. Kate was writing in her notebook, but she wasn't taking notes off the projector. She was sketching out the set of the show in the top margin. The inside of a dark gloomy castle. It looked good. "You know at the end the castle turns beautiful," he informed her in a whisper.

Kate furrowed her brow and glanced at him over her shoulder. "Spoiler alert?"

"Sorry."

But she immediately started a new drawing, identical, but shining and regal. She used a pack of colored pencils to emphasize the difference. "Good?" she whispered.

He swallowed. "It's amazing. You're not in art?"

She shook her head and shrugged.

"Beckett! Rodgers!" the teacher snapped. "Pay attention!"

They both jumped. "Sorry Ms. Jackson," Kate said quickly, a hand over where her notes should have been. They were silent and pretending to pay attention for a while longer, until Rick leaned back in his chair.

"Castle..." he mused, staring absent-mindedly at the board. "That'd be cool as a name."

"What, going to change your name to Castle Rodgers when you're eighteen?" Kate snorted, head bent over her notebook.

"Nah, like the last name Castillo. Castle. Like a last name."

"Why would you change your last name?" she hissed under her breath.

"I don't know," he moved forward, sitting on the edge of his seat with his chin on his hand, his elbow propped on their shared lab table. "Rodgers is so boring. I mean, it's so plain. It doesn't stand out. How many people do you know with the last name Castle?"

"None," she informed him, now looking up at him pointedly. "Because it's not an actual name. Now take notes, or we're both going to fail the quiz tomorrow."

He blanched. "There's a quiz tomorrow?" he asked, hastily pulling out his notebook, and not the one he used to write ideas and stories in. He craned his neck around, looking for whoever had the most written to beg for the stuff he'd missed later. She watched him copy everything down frantically, wondering if he had any idea his textbook, with all the information on the teacher's presentation and then some, was a better resource than taking notes. And whether he would figure it out until their next class that they didn't have a quiz tomorrow, since tomorrow was a Saturday.

She smirked to herself. God, he was easy.

_Richard Castle. Hmm._

She snorted. He was ridiculous.

**A/N: In case you were wondering, potassium really does explode if you put it in water. It's pretty cool. What you learn in chemistry... Anyways, hope you enjoyed it even if it was pretty short. The story's starting to reach the climax, so I don't think there will be too many more chapters now-but it's not over yet! Let me know what you thought! **

**Indy :)  
**


	20. Chapter 20: Asking for Alibis

**A/N: I would like to say that I'm sorry this story was basically on hiatus, but this chapter has been messing with my head and I have had no motivation to write it. I didn't want it to completely suck when I posted it. I'm not entirely happy with it right now, but I figured I'd post it instead of waiting any longer, so here is it, after longer than it should've been. I hope it's okay. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

**EDIT: Reposted because it wouldn't let me edit.  
**

Kate and Rick walked down the chaotic hallway in silence, refusing to talk to each other. Each was angry at the other for being so ridiculous, and it was only when Maddie skipped between them, latching onto each of their arms cheerily that the mood was lightened at all. "So!" she began, trailing off when she felt the negative energy in the air. "What's wrong?"

At the same moment they snapped, "Nothing," then looked away, their gazes hard and unlikely to soften any time soon.

"Okay…" said Maddie slowly. "So Christine was kind enough to inform me that the people in it use the symbols sort of as a joke, just like, ooh, Asian symbols, special. Like joke about being an actual cult or something."

"Yeah, I'm sure Melanie's laughing," Kate said darkly. "And they use those specifically?"

"Yeah," Maddied nodded. "The same one every time. The same as the ones Melanie had carved into her skin, and the same ones Christine had painted on last night. They're all the same, and they all know how to do it."

"But no one else would know," Kate added. "Including Melanie. So…"

"So one of them did it," Rick finished, forgetting about his cold shoulder treatment in his excitement. "Who's in this Evanescence Club?"

"Most of Melanie's friends—I think Alison's the leader, sort of, and Christine's her right hand girl. And as far as their circle of friends goes, not just for the club, Melanie, Alison, and Christine are basically the Golden Trio." Melanie checked her watch. "Can we go get something to eat? I'm starving."

"So if any of them were having problems with Melanie, Alison or Christine would know," Rick said, as both he and Kate ignored their friend.

"Or it's one of them and we'd tip them off that we're on to them," Kate countered.

"Yeah, but if we took that line of investigation we'd get nowhere."

"But we might spook the killer."

"Guys!" Maddie shouted finally, cutting them off. She turned to stop both of them in the middle of the hallway, disrupting the current, an island in the middle of an ocean. She was tired of being argued around and ignored when they went into theory mode or argument mode or just plain _them_ mode. They insisted they couldn't stand each other but it seemed like even if they were the only two people left on the planet they wouldn't be able to go too long without saying something to each other. "Fighting isn't going to help anything or anyone. We need to work together."

Rick nodded, shrugging. As Maddie could've predicted, her interjection had done nothing to quell his irritation. "I'm fine with that, I don't know if _she _can handle it—"

Maddie glared at him, cutting him off, but Kate snapped, "I'm perfectly fine, thanks, as long as _you _don't act stupid."

"This isn't doing anything!" Maddie shouted, drawing further attention. "You're both acting stupid! I know you're upset, and I know this is hard, but turning on each other is going to get us _nowhere._ So suck it up and get along before I lock you two in a closet to sort out your problems!"

There was ringing silence between them that wasn't drowned out by the chattering in the hallway. Rick and Kate met each other's eyes for a split second, glancing to their sides, before looking away at anything but each other. Rick followed students walking beside them and Kate trained her gaze on a deserted open locker. Maddie stared at them, her head swinging back and forth to look at them, like watching people play beer pong the night before.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, that seemed to hit pretty close to home. Was it the closet?" They ignored her, now focusing on avoiding her inquisitive gaze in particular. "So it's a closet? And you were…together? Alone?" She crossed her arms and cocked her head. "Whoa. What happened in the closet?" Still no response. "Come on, I know something happened."

"Nothing happened," Kate finally answered stubbornly. She turned up her nose, carefully avoiding adding anything. To her best friend, she might let something slip.

"You were alone in a closet, your face is scarlet, and _nothing happened?_"

Kate gritted her teeth, willing the color in her cheeks to fade, but it wasn't working. She could still feel the heat, and it seemed to be getting worse. She felt Rick's eyes steady on hers but refused to look over to catch his eye. "It was nothing."

"Uh-huh." She stared both of them down. "Come on, Kate, you know me. I"ll figure it out eventually." Kate made a face as she turned on Rick. "And you still owe me a date." He looked slightly guilty and she smirked. "Right. _'Nothing happened.' _So what now?"

"What now? That's it, isn't it?" Rick retorted, slightly irritable given the interrogation he'd been subjected to. "What else can we do? We hit a dead end. We're not cops, we're kids, we can't really investigate—"

"The hell we can't," Kate snapped. "We're the ones who actually care about this! Harding doesn't care! We have not hit a dead end yet! We have a new lead, we can investigate. What we do is get their alibis. We need to find out who's in that group that has a motive. Maybe…maybe there's a way. I don't know. We really can't scare the killer off though."

"I know," Maddie said, if only to placate her from arguing some more. "We'll have to be careful about asking for alibis. Motives, I think we can handle." She looked at Rick. "You think you can do this?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes."

"Good. I'm glad we've managed to come to an agreement. Who should we talk to first?"

"What if we talked to all of them at the same time?" Kate asked. She nodded down the hall in the direction of the auditorium. "Up for some rehearsal?"

* * *

When they slipped in the door of the theater a number was in full swing. No one was in the audience except for the boy Kate recognized as the head of the tech department and Mr. Anthony. She looked back into the sound box to see her friend Jenna and waved to her before proceeding down the aisle to the front.

Luckily it didn't seem to effect the rehearsal, as the actors were lost in their own world and didn't register anything off stage for the moment. That's how they practiced, not to let the audience affect you, but Kate knew it was harder, much harder, when there actually was an audience. She ducked into the row behind Mr. Anthony and leaned forward. He looked back for a fraction of a section to check who it was when she tapped his shoulder, but he kept his gaze mainly on the actors, looking for anything out of place or that needed to be fixed in preparation for the show. No one was in costumes, but they didn't have to be; they were all completely in character. Kate spotted a few other tech guys to the side, trying to fix a few microphones, and grinned, thinking of last year's production when they had thought they would have to yell the entire show until they got the mics working.

"Hey, Kate," Mr. Anthony whispered. "Come to watch?"

"I just wanted to talk to Alison and Christine after you were done, but yeah. How're they looking?"

"Not nearly as good as they did with Melanie," he sighed, "but they're good. Alison managed to get all her lines memorized well, fortunately—it's a good thing she has a good memory. Tanner's doing excellent, but he always has everything down within the first week. I swear he thinks I'll pull a fast one on them and make them give an impromptu performance in the middle of the hallway in January or something." Kate snorted; that did sound like Tanner. "So whether or not they're good enough will have to be a question to be answered tonight."

Watching, Kate wasn't sure how much they compared with Tanner and Melanie's performance, but standing alone, she was positive they'd do well. They were both good enough actors to fake it, at the very least.

The bell rang, and everyone immediately dropped out of character. The people running lights turned them on from the booth and the actors jumped down from the stage, gathering up their books and bags for their next class, but Kate stood and fought the current, heading for where Alison and Christine were talking near the wall, slinging their bags over their shoulders, and Maddie and Rick hurried after her, unsure of what questions to ask.

"Hey!" Kate called, shouting out the girls' names. They both turned sharply to look at her. "Can we talk to you for a bit?"

They nodded and approached. "What about?"

"We wanted to talk about Melanie," Kate said. "Good performance, by the way."

Alison shrugged, her smile slightly forced. "Well, it'll never be as good as Mel's, but thanks. What did you want to talk about her?"

"I just wanted to know, do either of you know if she was having problems with anyone? Like especially in your little...club."

They looked at each other, frowning. "I don't think so," Christine said, "do you know of any?"

Alison shook her head, looking back at Kate. "Not that I know of. I mean, she's our best friend, she'd tell us if she thought somebody was after her."

"Did either of you two notice anything wrong? Like something that she didn't pick up on? Was there anyone who seemed at all hostile to her?"

"No one in our group," Alison shrugged.

"There were a few ensemble kids who we're pretty sure were in love with her, which was kind of creepy, but-"

Kate looked between them. "Who were they? The kids. Like what did they do?"

"They just would follow her around sometimes, knew her schedule. Freshmen, we all just laughed at them between ourselves whenever we saw them. It was funny, they acted like little puppies, you know?" Christine explained. "I don't know why they'd hurt her. You don't think that could be it?"

"I don't know," Kate said. "It's possible. Who were they, do you know their names?"

"Better," Alison replied, and pointed over Kate's shoulder. "Those two, the kids with the books."

She turned to see, getting their appearance so she could recognize them if she lost them. She couldn't use her yearbook on freshmen. Turning back to the girls, she said, "Thanks, I'll let you know if anything turns up."

"Sure thing," Alison said with a smile.

But as she was turning away, Christine caught her arm. "It's Kate, right? And you're like working with the police?" Kate nodded. "Find the person who did it. Killing Mel...she was one of the best people I knew. She didn't deserve having her life taken from her, especially not like that."

Kate nodded again. "I'll do everything I possibly can to find the killer."

* * *

"Hey! Hey, you!"

The two boys turned just as they were about to walk into the mass of students trying to get to class on time. "Yeah?" one said cautiously. His hair was dyed black and he was wearing eyeliner. There was a stone in his left earlobe. Having dated Tanner, Kate couldn't find any fault with any of it.

"I need to talk to you."

"About what?" his friend asked. He was a bit more mellowed down, his hair a natural mousey brown. He wore a football jersey that read, 'DEMMINGS 06' on it. Kate had forgotten that it was a game day; she didn't go to off-season games. "We need to get to class."

"Quit being freshmen, you've got four minutes. I need to talk to you about Melanie Cross." Kate highly doubted that these two freshmen had killed Melanie, but she'd just promised Christine that she would do anything to find the killer, and not following up on this, which was basically the only lead they had right now, would've been violating that promise. And Kate Beckett kept her promises. "I'm Kate. Who're you?"

The black-haired kid introduced them. "I'm Dylan, and this is my friend Tom," he said, gesturing to the second, who hadn't spoken yet.

"Did you follow her around or something?"

They glanced at each other nervously. This sophomore was pretty well-known; she would hurt you if you didn't listen to her. Tom might've been a football player and she might not have looked that tough, but there were stories about this one. "Yeah," Tom said.

"How come?"

Dylan shrugged. "I don't know, I mean, she was pretty, she could sing well, everyone likes her. We didn't really follow her around that much, we just sort of-"

"Crushed on her?" Kate suggested.

They nodded.

"Great, where were you on Tuesday?"

"During the school day? At school," Tom said. "My mom drops me off at the front. I've never been absent in my life."

"You were sick one day in third grade," Dylan countered.

"I went home sick and I was fine the next day."

"Right." Kate looked at him pointedly, and he jumped. "Oh, right. I was at school too."

She wrinkled her nose, considering it. They seemed slightly anxious, but just to mess with them she sweated them out for a moment before saying, "Fine, go to class."

They immediately took off down the hallway, hurrying so they wouldn't be late. Kate was willing to bet her motorcycle money that their class was down the next hallway. She rolled her eyes as Maddie and Rick, who had figured she could take care of them on her own, approached. "Did they do it?" Maddie asked.

She stamped her foot on the linoleum. "I'm guessing no, but I'm going to have Harding check their attendance records, just in case."

"Well that's annoying." Rick checked his watch. "Can we go to class now?"

Kate made a face. "God, I hate freshmen." And she turned on her heel to walk to class.

**A/N: Again, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, but hopefully it'll be easier now that I've worked through this one. Don't forget to let me know what you think, even if it is to berate me with complaints. :)**

**Indy**


	21. Chapter 21: Special Agent

**A/N: I enjoyed this chapter, I wanted to get one last one up before school starts, and also in celebration of the fact that there's only a month until the premiere! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Lemme check...nope. I know, I was hoping...**

Kate slipped a quarter into one of the school's pay phones outside her classroom and told the operator, "Put me through to Detective Harding, twenty-eighth precinct, please?"

It was a second before she heard the detective's familiar grunt, "Harding."

"Hello, Detective, it's Kate Beckett."

The man on the other side sighed heavily, and Kate couldn't quite tell why. Was he still annoyed that they were helping? She could've sworn he'd relatively warmed up to them. But then he said, "Tell me you've got something."

Not annoyance, then. Desperation. As much as Kate was kind of frustrated by his continued uncaring attitude, she realized that he was working hard on this—Kate had an idea that it might have something to do with Melanie's age. A sophomore in high school... Even Harding wasn't unfeeling enough to let this one go cold that easily. "To be honest, Detective, not really. I just wanted to make sure these two kids didn't do it. They're freshmen who tended to follow Melanie around. Could you check up on Tom Demmings and a kid named Dylan? Sorry, I didn't get his last name. I was lucky I got Demmings, he was wearing his football jersey."

"Thanks, I'll check up on it." He spoke so absently, Kate wasn't sure he'd heard her explanation.

"Detective?" she asked, letting her bag rest against the ledge. "Everything alright?"

"No, no, everything's not alright. This damn case won't end and it's spinning us in circles. We have no leads and we can't let this one go."

"Look, Detective, do you want us to come over to the precinct after school? We can come help look for stuff, if it's okay. If you want us to."

He must've nodded first and then realized that he was on the phone because there was no answer for a moment. Then he said, "Oh, yeah, right. That'd be nice of you. If you three aren't too busy, I know you're in school and probably have homework—"

"Well, we were planning on going to the school show—personal favor, they're doing it in honor of Melanie with the understudy, and I'm friends with some of the people in it and the drama teacher—and it's a Friday so we have all weekend to do our homework. We'll be there."

"Thanks." When he said nothing for a moment, Kate moved to hang up slowly, unsure of whether he had already set the phone down, but then she heard him sigh again. "Kate? I know I've been less than welcoming the past two days, but I do appreciate the help. I don't—" he chuckled slightly, "you may have noticed, but I don't do too well with kids, so I appreciate that."

"No problem, Detective Harding," she replied quickly, covering her shock. And she hadn't thought she'd see the day... "All to help a friend."

"Well, I'll see you kids later." This time she knew the line had gone dead, and she set the phone back on its hook just as the bell rang. Five minutes, and she hadn't found Rick or Maddie. She wondered for a moment where they could be, but anywhere near either their previous or next classes were on the other side of the school. Ah well, she'd find them at lunch. Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she hurried down the hallway to her locker, pushing through the crowd of kids with her head down, bangs falling over eyes, to avoid any stares from people who might be wondering why Kate Beckett, who could take seniors in a drinking contest or a fist fight, had tears sliding slowly down her face.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, Maddie and Rick were walking briskly down the hallway, Maddie pulling him by the wrist. "Where are we going, exactly?" he asked. "We only have a minute or so before the bell rings."

She laughed, tossing her hair, her blond curls bouncing around her shoulders. "Come on, it's class. Do you really want to go?"

"What, are we ditching?"

"Is it ditching if we're still on school property?" she asked, reaching for a handle and opening a supply closet. After yesterday, Rick was sure he'd never look at one again without wondering if there was a body inside, but when Maddie opened it his fears were unwarranted, as there was nothing but paper towels and latex gloves inside.

He grinned slyly as they looked around the hallway to check if it was deserted, and hurried into the tiny room after making sure it was. "I like the way you think." She pulled the door shut on them and turned to look at him, flicking on the lights.

"So what's going on with you and Kate?"

He started. Not exactly what he'd been expecting. But he really should've known, the way she'd promised she would find out that morning. "Why would anything be going on with me and Kate?"

"Uh, because you came out of class with her with both of you totally ticked and I know there's more to that than some little annoying quirks of yours that I happen to know don't annoy her as much as she'd like to think. So spill."

He stared back into her big brown eyes, unwilling to let himself lose the contest. "There's nothing going on."

She raised an eyebrow, and he felt his willpower slipping.

"Well...we might've kissed."

She laughed delightedly. For someone who he'd also kissed yesterday, he would've thought she'd be angry. Girls. He'd never get them. _Ever._ "In a closet?"

"In...Tanner's laundry room."

"When was this? Last night? At the party?" She was grinning hugely. He couldn't understand what she could possibly be so thrilled about.

"Yeah, at the party, after the cops came."

Now her grin faded, to be replaced by a look of utter confusion. "But the cops searched the whole house for kids left."

"How would you—"

"Because I waited for you guys in the bushes across the street for, like, ever before I finally left because you hadn't come out yet! I figured you'd both gotten out before me. So what happened?"

"Well, apparently there was this space beneath the shelves in there and we hid under there when the cops were coming. And it was super dusty, and I was about to sneeze just as the cop walked in, so she kissed me to make sure I didn't, so see? There's nothing to it!"

"If there was nothing to it, then you both would've told me this morning and neither of you would've avoided the subject." She laughed again, just as the bell rang. "Wow, I can't believe it took that little to break you."

"You are psychotic, you know that?" he informed her. "Girls are psychotic. All of you."

She grinned some more. "So do you like her?"

"Kate? No!"

"Okay, okay, I was just asking, don't get all defensive, though I'm sure you're harboring some secret feelings for her somewhere. Because everyone knows that guys and girls cannot stay friends for long. They're going to like each other at some point."

"That is not true," he insisted.

"Oh, really? So, are we just friends?"

He frowned, wondering if it was a trick question. "I kissed you yesterday, remember?"

"Of course I remember, genius, I'm not an amnesiac. So you wouldn't mind being my boyfriend?"

A smirk made its way slowly onto his face. "Aren't I supposed to ask that?"

She shrugged. "I'm a weirdo."

"Great, because I'm a weirdo too."

"Is that a yes?" she asked, watching him.

"You betcha," he grinned, and wrapped an arm around her neck, kissing her right there. It was so easy to be with Maddie, because she was very to the point, and there were no grey areas. He liked it. He liked her.

And then the door opened and natural light flooded into the room. They blinked and pulled away; the dim light bulb had not provided much illumination. The janitor immediately snapped, "What are you doing in here? Get to class!"

They sheepishly hurried out the door and down the hallway, trying very hard to keep straight faces. Once they'd turned the corner both of them broke out in laughter. "What should we do now?" Maddie asked. "We can't really go to class, I mean, it already started and we'd get yelled at. Truancy is a much better alternative."

"Well, to be good truants we need to avoid getting caught," he said, offering her his arm. "Agent Queller?"

"Agent Rodgers," she laughed, linked elbows as they walked stoically down the hall, before sneaking up to the next hallway to check if it was empty, then sneaking stealthily around the corner.

* * *

Kate sat at a lunch table alone, arms crossed on the table top with a tray of hard french fries and a scoop of mystery meat stew in front of her. She handed touched the sorry excuse for a stew and was chewing on the stale fries without thinking about the taste as she watched the door. They should be coming through the door straight in front of her, as both of their classes had been in that direction, as were their lockers. So she was not expecting two pairs of hands to land on her shoulders at the same moment their owners yelled, "Boo!"

She yelped and jumped, sending her plate flying over the table. The room was so loud that no one even turned to stare at them a bit. Kate whirled on them, ignoring the spilled food—she hadn't planned on eating anymore of it anyways. "What is wrong with you?" Both of them were giggling infuriatingly.

"We just wanted to see you," Maddie grinned.

Kate narrowed her eyes at them. "What are you two on?"

"Us? Nothing. Nothing at all except the delicious high of freedom!" Rick sang.

"What did you do?" Kate moaned, turning her back on them and rubbing her hands over her face.

"Oh, we just ran all over the school evading hostile communists who want to put us in captivity forever," he grinned, sitting down across the table as Maddie dropped onto the bench beside her.

"You skipped—" she quickly lowered her voice, "you skipped class?" she whispered angrily, leaning over slightly.

"Not like you don't do it all the time," Maddie shrugged, grabbing a fallen fry off the table and chewing off the end. Then she gave it a disgusted look and dropped it back where it had been. "Ew."

"I talked to Harding and he was going to check into the freshmen's alibis, but I don't think it'll do anything. I mean, even together they couldn't drag Melanie down an alley."

"She might've gone into the alley willingly," Rick pointed out. The talk of murder was starting to mellow out the giggling couple, which Kate was grateful for. She didn't want to have to work with people who couldn't take it seriously.

"I doubt it. But you never know. Besides, what would they be planning to do? They're freshmen," Kate replied.

"Yeah, what would some of the kids you know in our grade be planning to do as freshmen?" Maddie reminded her. "Freshmen are not as innocent as they look."

"They don't look innocent," Kate snorted, then quickly sobered. "But they don't look guilty either. So we have no suspects."

"So what do we do?"

"Well, I was going to talk to Josh again, because we never actually asked him about any problems Melanie might've been having—"

"We asked if it seemed like anything was wrong," Maddie said.

"Yeah, but not as investigators. We need to ask directly this time. So I'll ask him in class, and then I told Harding that we could head over to the twenty-eighth after school, since it's Friday and we have nothing better to do."

"Ooh," Maddie said quickly, biting her lip. "I actually have a dentist appointment after school. I can make it to the show, but not to the precinct with you guys, as much as I'd like to."

"That's fine. Rick? You up for it?"

He nodded quickly. "My mom's doing a show right now so she won't be home all day. Got nothing else to do."

"Great." The bell rang for the end of lunch and Kate groaned. "You guys got here late, jeez."

"Secret agents are never late," Rick scoffed, then quickly threw his hands over his mouth, his eyes going wide. "Oh no! I've said too much!"

She shot him an unamused glare and stood up. She walked away backwards, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I'll meet you outside after school. You better have money to split a cab all the way to the twenty-eighth."

**A/N: Well, that's another chapter down. It's kind of quick for Rick and Maddie, I know, but I always saw them (as in, if their relationship had been anything) as people who wouldn't really draw things out. Maddie certainly doesn't seem to hide anything, judging from that ribbing she gave Kate in 2x22... xD Anyways, hope you liked it, and don't forget to let me know what you thought! **

**Indy :)**


	22. Chapter 22: Pieces of the Puzzle

**A/N: Hello everyone, sorry this was on hiatus for months. Hopefully this chapter makes up for it. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

"Rick!"

"Rick swung his head around to look at her. "What?"

"Would you quit making noises? Honestly, why are you so restless?"

He shrugged, but there was something about his expression and his tone as he muttered. "Sorry." But a minute later he was back to tapping his fingers on the cab door as he stared out the window.

Kate set her jaw, glaring at him, but he was resolutely ignoring her. She rolled her eyes, leaned over, and punched him hard in the arm.

"Ach!" he gasped, rubbing under his sleeve. "What is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with me? What is wrong with _you_? Two hours ago you and Maddie were practically on a sugar high from running around the school a whole class period, and now you're acting like someone's after you or something! So what's wrong, huh?"

He fidgeted awkwardly, avoiding her gaze. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"Rick, it's obviously not nothing," she snapped.

He made the mistake of looking up at her; it only took a second of catching her eye to break him. I, um, told Maddie about last night."

"What?"

"She was staring at me! She stared me down! Just like you are now!" Now that the truth was out Rick immediately jumped to the defensive.

"God, Rodgers, do you have no willpower?" He didn't answer and she continued, "And how did she take it?"

"Um…she laughed. And then she asked me to be her boyfriend."

Kate frowned, then turned to stare out the window at the cars stopped around them. "Not very traditional," she commented.

"Nope."

"But then again, it is Maddie."

"I pegged her for a feminist."

She nodded, not turning to look at him. "Well, I sure hope you two are very happy together."

"Was that sarcastic?"

She glanced over at him at last, eyebrow raised. "No. Why would it have been?" she challenged.

He shook his head. Through the glass the cabbie bobbed his head to whatever radio station he was listening to, and farther through the windshield cars were stopped on the street for at least a block, waiting for the longest red light Kate had ever seen. Finally it turned green and the cab surged forward with the sea of cars around them. It was already quarter till four, and the play started at seven; they wouldn't have much time if the traffic didn't ease up.

The cab pulled up to Harding's precinct ten minutes later, and Kate hurriedly paid him, Rick handing over half the fare.

"You kids sure this is your place?" the cabbie asked as he took the money.

"Yeah, we're positive," Kate said, and dashed into the brick building with Rick at her heels.

Homicide was the second floor so she opted to take the stairs. She strolled through the bullpen confidently, not blushing the slightest under the stares as she strode to Harding's desk. He leaned back in his chair, pulling his eyes away from his white board that listed all the information they had on Melanie and the suspects. A hand-drawn timeline spanned the top of the board.

"Hello, Detective," Rick said.

"Hello, Rodgers," he replied. "Beckett."

"Did you get the alibi for the freshmen?" Kate wondered.

"Yeah, they're both clear like we thought. I looked them up and neither of them look like they'd murder somebody anyways. They're more of…"

"Wannabes," Kate suggested.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I interviewed all her teachers, the principals, and nothing popped out. I talked to her mom again and she didn't have anything new—the blackmail letters were all clean, the lab couldn't find any fingerprints. None of the adults raised any red flags, and the kids you've given me are clean. So far I have nothing."

"It wasn't an adult," Kate said. "The symbols—I told you about the club, and only one of them would have been able to know the exact pattern they use. I can probably give you their names, though I'm not sure if I remember all of them." She turned to look at Rick. "I don't know if there were more than that."

Rick shrugged. "Couldn't tell you. I'm the transfer, remember?"

"You transferred?" Harding grunted. "You two didn't know each other until this year?"

"Last week," Kate corrected.

"Hmm. You two act like you've known each other forever."

They shook their heads.

"Well, anyways. Could you list out the people in the group so I can run 'em? That could help a lot." He nodded. "You kids go home yet?" he asked, noting their backpacks.

"Nope," Rick replied. "We probably should, before the show."

"Oh, right," Kate said, as if she hadn't thought of that. "Probably a good idea. I need to change too."

"What's wrong with what you're wearing?" Rick questioned, glancing at her long-sleeved thermal and jeans.

"Don't ever ask a girl that, kid," Harding advised. "They need to change at least twice a day to maintain their sanity." He handed Kate a notepad and a pen.

Reaching out to take it, Kate rolled her eyes at the members of the conversation with a y-chromosome, who were chortling. "You have to dress nice for the theater," she snapped. "Didn't your mother teach you that?"

"Broadway theater, maybe," Rick groaned. "Off-Broadway professionals. But high school drama club? Questionable."

"Well, I guess you'll ask your mother later. Anyways, the play starts in three hours-"

"And you need three hours to change?"

Harding looked as though he would've liked to add that as number two to the list of things to never ask a girl, but Kate spoke before he could say anything. Bending over to write on the desk, she quickly jotted down a half dozen names. "Three hours to go to my place, change, go to _your_place so _you_can change, grab something to eat, and get back to school."

Rick glanced at the detective. "Ooh, that does sound like a lot of things to do." Harding nodded sympathetically.

"Well it won't take too long if you don't take forever." She handed the yellow notebook back to him and set the pen in the cup on the desk. "Also, don't forget we have to pick up your girlfriend."

Harding looked between them. "You and Maddie, huh?"

Rick groaned again. "As of this morning," Kate smirked. "She asked him. And speaking of boyfriends and girlfriends, Josh, Melanie's, told me he hadn't noticed anything wrong with her. He also commented that she would've told him if anything was bothering her."

"Okay, well, I'll fun him down again, see if there's anything we missed, but I doubt anything'll turn up, the way this case has been going."

"Okay. Is there anything else we can help you with? While we're here?" Kate wondered.

Harding rubbed his temples. "Look at that board for me? I need some fresh sets of eyes."

They moved around the desk to get closer to the whiteboard covered in pictures and post-it notes and little comments. Everything looked familiar, but they'd gotten bits and pieces at different times; seeing it all at once made it easier to put together.

Surrounding pictures of the victim were notes from Dr. Perlmutter: precise hit, covered markings (made with plastic knife), Chinese symbols. School photos of every kid they'd made contact with, plus a small description below, hung in rows on the right, including Kate, Maddie, and Rick. Details about Melanie's social life, about her parents, her friends, and the drama department, were listed below her own ID picture, along with pictures from the play and of her mom, even one of a much younger Melanie with her father. Mrs. Cross must've given it to them.

"Now, put it together…" Rick murmured absent-mindedly, examining everything.

"And you get _nothing_," Kate murmured with a scowl. "There's nothing here."

"There's something, don't worry," he said seriously, turning his head to look at her. "Someone killed her, and therefore something is here. We have all the facts, we just have to put them together."

"Yeah but how?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but Harding shuffled between them. "You catch anything?"

Kate threw her arms up, letting them drop against her sides, and stood up straight. "No," she sighed, turning away to scoop up her backpack from where they'd dropped them on the floor. "Come on, we should get going." As they walked back towards the elevator, she paused and looked back. "If we figure anything out we'll make sure to call."

"Ditto." The detective nodded and waved. "Have fun."

"Good luck."

It took half an hour to get through traffic to Kate's place. As they jogged into the building, having just gotten out of the cab. It had been unusually warm for the past week, but it was getting colder. They hurried inside to escape the chill.

"Were are we eating?" Rick wondered as his stomach growled. The silver elevator doors parted and they walked in, and Kate pressed the number for her floor. Usually she took the stairs, but it was too much effort tonight.

"Your place?"

Rick cringed. "My mother might be dramatic and cool, but she cannot cook, bless her." With the last two words he grinned teasingly.

She rolled her eyes but laughed along, which was new. "Here, then. My mom is an awesome cook, and with any luck she'll be home. I don't think she had any trials today…" The bell dinged and the doors opened, and Kate dug through her bag until she found her key. Letting them in, she explained, "She's a lawyer, so it sometimes feels like she's eternally on jury duty, since we never know if she'll catch a case that day or not. She likes having dinner here though; sometimes she'll bring clients home to eat with us if they need to talk. And you'd think that'd be interesting, but it's actually really dull sometimes." She dropped her backpack and keys on the kitchen table with a loud _clunk_, calling out, "Mom! Dad! I'm home!"

Her father wandered into the area from his office. "Hey, sweet pea. How was school? And who's this?" He held out his hand and Rick shook it.

"This is my friend Rick, he transferred like two weeks ago. Dad, Rick; Rick, my dad. Where's Mom? We're going to the school play and we were really hungry."

Mr. Beckett shrugged. "She left work forty-five minutes ago, and you know how traffic is on Fridays."

The lock clicked and all of them turned to see her mother walking in. She was pulling her dark hair out of its bun, letting it fall around her shoulders. "Hey, guys! Oh, who are you?"

Rick looked between Mrs. Beckett and her daughter as he introduced himself. "I'm Rick, Kate might've mentioned me? You two look really similar, you know."

Mrs. Beckett grinned, throwing her arm around Kate's shoulder, who made a face, sticking her tongue out and trying to get away. "We get that a lot."

"Mom," Kate whined, pushing her away. "Can you make us some food?" She ran to change.

"I expect a hug in payment then! A real one!" her mom called after her, but Kate just jumped up the steps, thundering noisily.

"Fine, fine," was Kate's reply as she shut her door. Mrs. Beckett laughed and walked towards the kitchen. Mr. Beckett chuckled and returned to the office.

"Nice to meet you, Rick," he said, and Rick flashed a quick smile in response, accompanied by an awkward nod.

"Come on and sit down," Mrs. Beckett called him, and he hurried over to the kitchen table. "So you're the transfer student?"

"Yep, that's me," Rick shrugged. _Awkward,__awkward,__awkward._ "I'm the weirdo I'm sure Kate's been complaining about for the past two weeks."

Mrs. Beckett laughed, already putting a pot on to boil and retrieving some pasta from the cabinet, then chopping some tomatoes. "Hope you like pasta, Rick."

Rick's stomach rumbled, and he was pretty sure he'd have eaten a boiled boot if that's what she put in that pot. "Love it."

"That's good. It'll just have tomato and basil, but hopefully that'll be-"

"That sounds amazing," Rick interjected.

She smiled at him. "Good. A lot of people won't try-" What a lot of people wouldn't try Rick never heard because the phone rang, echoing from two places, one in the office and one on the counter. Mrs. Beckett set the knife on the cutting board and picked it up. "Johanna Beckett speaking." She listened for a moment and paled. "What? No, yes, of course, I'll tell her, I'll let her know. Thank you." She hung up, shock flitting over her face, and wiped both hands on a paper towel. "Katie!"

"What?" Kate yelled back. "I'm changing!"

"Well, finish up and come down here!"

Silence fell as Mrs. Beckett went back to chopping. After a few minutes Kate stomped down the stairs, now dressed in black leggings and a long red peacoat and black-and-white spotted rainboots. She'd touched up her makeup and held a thin white scarf, red knit hat, and a tube of lipstick in one hand, purse in the other. Her curls bounced on her shoulders like her mom's as she skipped across the tile. "Yeah, Mom?"

Mrs. Beckett set down the knife again and turned to face her. "I just got a call from Detective Harding. They solved that case that you two and Maddie have been working on."

That immediately piqued her interest. "Yeah? Did they get him?"

"Yeah," her mother nodded solemnly. "They arrested Melanie's boyfriend Josh."

**A/N: There are probably only two or three more chapters left so hopefully I can have them written soon. Hope you liked the chapter and if you feel so compelled, please review!**

**Indy**


	23. Chapter 23: Beauty and the Beast Reprise

**A/N: Officially off hiatus for good, and almost done as well! Only two more chapters and the epilogue after this one. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. **

Kate blinked. Her jaw dropped open. "_What?__"_

"I know it's hard to believe-"

"No, it's kind of freaking impossible to believe!" Kate snapped. "How? How'd they find out he did it?"

"I don't know; Harding just called to tell me to tell you. He sounded pretty worn down."

Kate paced back and forth. "I don't understand, when we left he had nothing, and now he just decides to arrest Josh? Josh didn't kill her, he didn't even know about the Evanescence group! He couldn't have known about the symbols. No one but one of them-"

"Katie," Mrs. Beckett said, her hand descending on her daughter's shoulder to pause the movement. "If Detective Harding arrested him they must've found evidence to prove it. Do you understand me?"

Kate frowned at her. "But they couldn't possibly have found something on Josh! You don't know the guy-"

"Josh…" Her dad looked up from whatever he was reading, sitting at the coffee table. "Isn't he the guy with the bike?"

Kate groaned. "Dad…"

"I knew he was no good, didn't I tell you-" he looked at his wife, but Kate rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Dad, just because he has a motorcycle doesn't mean he's a bad kid," Kate snapped. "Not everyone who rides a motorcycle is 'bad'."

"Maybe not bad," her dad replied, "but motorcyclists are reckless. Stands to reason that kid would murder his girlfriend, I could've guessed that one-"

"Dad!"

"I'm just saying, Katie," he said calmly, going back to his reading material. "I'm not surprised."

Katie exhaled in exasperation through her nose. "What if I get a motorcycle, huh? You think I'd murder someone?"

Mr. Beckett snorted. "Good luck, I'm not paying for it. And you won't have one as long as you live under my roof."

"Mom!" Kate complained.

"Katherine, come here and set the table," her mother said sternly. Kate huffed angrily but went to get plates and napkins. Rick stood awkwardly as silence descended.

Mrs. Beckett set a steaming bowl of pasta on the table and called everyone over. Kate flung herself into one of the wooden chairs, scowling at her plate with her hand supporting her head. Rick sat down next to her, and Mrs. Beckett smiled at him. "Rick, do you want to get some pasta?"

He nodded, glad for the distraction. They ate in silence as well; Kate shoveled food into her mouth like she just wanted to finish and get away from her parents and Rick, worried she'd leave him behind, tried to match her pace. He'd just barely finished when she put her dish in the sink and gathered her things off the chair.

"Come on, Rick," she snapped, motioning out the door, already moving towards the hallway.

"Bye, Kate," her mother called as Rick put his plate on the sink.

"Bye," Kate replied insincerely without looking back.

"Thanks so much for the food," Rick said, shaking her parents' hands. "It was nice to meet you."

"No problem, I'm glad you enjoyed it," Mrs. Beckett replied.

Mr. Beckett smiled. "Good to meet you too, Rick."

Rick grabbed his backpack and followed after Kate, just barely making the elevator, in which she waited impatiently. "Ugh, they're so frustrating," she muttered, hitting the Lobby button with more force than was necessary.

"They're just looking out for you," he said cautiously.

She rolled her eyes. "Your place and then school, then?"

He nodded. Neither spoke until the doors opened and she snapped, "You're so lucky your mom doesn't care what you do."

Rick shrugged. They opted to walk rather than try to get a cab and then sit through rush hour traffic in the congested city. By the time they reached his apartment, Kate had cheered up considerably, and hugged Ms. Rodgers when they walked through the door.

"Good to see you, Kate," his mother smiled. "You look lovely, where are you two off to?"

"We're going to see the play at school and she insists that I need to change," Rick muttered.

"Of course you do!" she said, slightly appalled at his outfit. "You can't got to the theater in that!"

Kate smirked. "Told ya."

Rick made a face but obeyed, running off to change. "This is the play that that poor murdered girl was going to star in?" Ms. Rodgers asked. Kate nodded, and the woman seemed distressed. "That is awful, honestly. I'm not surprised, though, show business is catty, even in high school. I was lucky, mine wasn't too bad—"

"Actually, they just arrested her boyfriend," Kate said. "I'm with your line of thinking but apparently they found some evidence."

"Oh, well, that's good that they solved it," Ms. Rodgers smiled, and Kate couldn't help but smile back, nodding. "Did you already eat?"

"Yeah, my mom made pasta," Kate answered. The phone rang and both of them looked around.

"Got it!" Rick yelled, and they saw him walk across the hall, his shirt buttoned wrong, to grab the phone from his mother's room. "Hello?" he said, holding it to his ear. He realized his shirt was messed up and supported the phone between his shoulder and his ear as he fixed it.

"Hey, Rick," Maddie said. "So glad I caught you, it turns out my parents orchestrated this family dinner with my grandparents that I'm expected to attend, so I can't come to the show! Can you believe that?" She sighed melodramatically.

"Yeah, apparently unbelievable parents seems to be the trend tonight," he said absent-mindedly, still paying attention to his shirt. "Um, do you not want me to go with Kate? I mean, it might be…"

"No, it's fine, you two go ahead," Maddie said, and he could practically hear the smile in her voice. "Tell me how it is! I want reviews!"

"Okay, sure thing. By the way, they arrested Josh."

"Josh?" Maddie seemed surprised. "Hmm, well, I never would've guessed that one. But it's good they figured it out. I'll call you tomorrow morning?"

He grinned. "Yeah, sounds good. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

They both hung up and he walked back into the living room, his blue button up done right this time. He looked nice in it and his black pants and a pair of dress shoes. "Maddie isn't coming, she had to go to dinner with her grandparents," he announced as his mother smoothed back his hair. He made a face but allowed her to continue as she adjusted his collar.

"Yeah, she always has stuff like that, her parents like 'family bonding time'," Kate explained, making air quotes with her fingers. Rick cringed.

"What, no tie?" Ms. Rodgers asked, ignoring their conversation.

"No, Mother," he replied. "It's school, not Broadway."

"There is no difference," she announced dramatically, waving her arms about. Seeing his unimpressed expression, she dropped them and shrugged. "You two go along and have fun then."

Kate laughed as he kissed his mother on the cheek and they walked back out into the evening, which was only now beginning to darken. "What time is it?"

He checked his watch. "About six-fifteen."

"We've got plenty of time then, we can go backstage and see Mr. Anthony and see how they're all doing," she suggested.

"Oh, cool, we get to see behind the scenes!" he grinned. "Though it does take some of the magic out of it," he admitted it.

"I don't know, it's cool," she said. "I like knowing how it all works."

"You probably read the ends of books first too," he teased.

She rolled her eyes. "Do not."

"I bet you do."

They walked in comfortable silence until they reached the school. Some of the tech kids waited to sell tickets. "Two tickets, please," Rick said before Kate had her purse open and handed them money for both. She frowned.

"I can pay for my own ticket," she protested.

"I'm already not wearing a tie," Rick chuckled. "What would my mother say if I didn't buy your ticket? She did, after all, raise a gentleman."

"Sure," she snorted, crossing her arms.

"Now, come on," he said, steering her inside with his hand on her back, nodding to the ticket sales people and the ushers as they entered. "Don't be such a downer. We're going to see a show! You must be happy when you enter the theater. When you leave…well, that's a different story. But even if you're not happy, you need to walk out satisfied-"

"I just can't get over the fact that they arrested Josh," Kate snapped. "He can't possibly be the killer!"

"I'm sure they had some solid evidence on him that they must've found after we left." He guided her towards the curtain. Students working on light and sound sat at the booth in the back and, recognizing Kate, didn't pay them any attention when they walked backstage, where everyone was trying not to trip over props and set pieces and their own costumes. Everyone spoke in hushed voices so it wouldn't be deafening, as Kate was well aware that it could be.

Mr. Anthony, directing the organized chaos, spotted them and waved with a sad smile. Kate walked over and he gave her a one-armed hug. "How is everyone doing?" she asked.

"Good," he nodded, pointing at a couple of techies, who were carrying a sofa to its place, making last minute adjustments. "No one really wants to do this, but we're all going to, for her."

Kate nodded. "Well, you've done a magnificent job. Did Alison get everything down?"

"Oh, yeah, she really pulled through over the past few days. She did really well, memorized them all the other night, I was impressed. I'd been worried for a while that she wouldn't know them, but that girl has a great memory." He frowned at some of the students hanging up a portrait prop. "I'm sorry, I have to make sure everything gets done right, if you'll excuse me…"

He walked off to deal with whatever problem he'd spotted, and Rick looked around. "How big is it back here?"

"It's enormous," Kate answered. "There's no real storage area to either side of the stage, but behind that curtain," she pointed to the farthest backdrop, which had been painted like a meadow and a grassy valley, "is a huge area where we keep everything we've ever used. Mr. Anthony reuses a lot of stuff so he doesn't get rid of anything." They could hear people beginning to enter on the other side of the main curtain. "Come on, we should go find our seats."

The play was really good; Kate had to hand it to them. She wasn't a fairytale girl, and she was a little preoccupied through the entire thing, but she enjoyed it. And Tanner and Alison did work well together, even though at some parts it did seem a bit awkward and forced. Still, through the whole thing her mind remained on the case.

She set aside her thoughts once everyone began to take their bows, and she and Rick stood with the rest of the house to clap for them. Tanner stepped forward, his Beast head tucked under his arm as he waved the other to get everyone's attention to quiet them. "I just wanted to announce that this show was put on in honor of Melanie Cross, who was supposed to be a part of this production, until some monster way worse than the Beast took her from us on Tuesday. Well, I say a part of the show—she was the heart and soul of this department." His voice cracked as he spoke. Kate looked down at the front row where Melanie's mom stood, tears glistening in her eyes as well. "So this show is in honor of her, who loved this place more than any other place, and more than any of us. She was the best of us all. So Mel, this is for you."

There was no dry eye in the house.

Except, as Kate noticed when she brushed away the tears that had formed at the corners of her own eyes, one.

**A/N: Hope you liked it! Review and let me know. And a merry Christmas (or happy holidays) to everyone! The last three chapters are already written so they should be up soon enough. Everyone who is actually still reading is fabulous and amazing, and I appreciate all of you. Hopefully this time around will let me reply to reviews so I can let you know how amazing you all are. **


	24. Chapter 24: Echoes

**A/N: Hope you have a great day, and hope you enjoy this chapter! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.**

** Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. If that changes at any point in time I'll be sure to let you know.**

Detective Harding opened the door into the interrogation room, watching his suspect. Josh had his hands over his face, and when the door opened he looked up. "I didn't kill Melanie," he said in a low voice.

Harding stared at him, not replying. "You weren't sick on Tuesday."

"Okay, so I skipped school. My mom took me to Long Island for theday to see my grandfather because he's dying and they didn't know if he was going to make it through the week. Is that not enough explanation for you? You can talk to my mom if you want!"

"I know what you did on Tuesday," Harding said calmly. "I also know that you slept until almost ten before your mom ever went in your room to wake you up. You could've easily slipped out early that morning and come back."

Josh gaped at him. "Are you kidding me? Why would I kill Melanie?"

"That's what I'd love to know," Harding replied, sitting down across from the teenager. "So why don't you tell me?"

"I didn't kill her!"

"Okay, sure. How about the hit? Did you mean to kill her, or did you just want to hurt her? Did you know that there was a point right where she got hit that would kill her? Or at least knock her out—the internal bleeding finished her off."

"I don't know anything about that! I would not hurt Mel!"

"How about the symbols? What did you do about those?"

"What symbols?"

"The different symbols carved into her skin after she'd died."

Josh watched him in horror. "So...someone came back after she was dead and hurt her more? What kind of monster would do that?"

Harding raised an eyebrow. "From what I'm looking at, you would."

Josh slammed his fists against the table, sitting up straight. "I didn't kill my girlfriend!"

Rick had already nudged her as she turned to look at him. "Just wait," she whispered, meeting his eyes. He looked serious and shocked. Once the curtain had closed everyone began filing out of their rows, some waiting for cast members with bundles of flowers. For the most part the crowd had cleared after twenty minutes, when many ensemble members began to leave with their parents and friends. Still they waited, lurking near the wall. Tanner passed without noticing them, sniffling slightly in a black t-shirt and jeans, his hands in his pockets, walking to meet his parents in the back, who hugged him tightly as he walked out. Kate smiled; his parents were so nice and insanely supportive of their son. Mr. Anthony hugged parents of cast members, leaving with some of them. The tech students didn't need to do much to clean up, as they still had three shows to put on over the weekend—there was nothing to take down or remove. The lights shut off, all except one over the stage, illuminating the area with a white glow.

"Come on," Kate whispered.

"Shouldn't we call Detective Harding?"

"With what evidence?"

"But...no one knows we're here!"

She gritted her teeth. It had been difficult enough waiting to go in, now it was just infuriating. "Okay, go use one of the phones in the hallway and call Harding, and I'll go in."

"But..." Rick bit his lip, still unhappy with the plan. "What if you get hurt?"

"I'm not going to get hurt!" she snapped. "Would you go?"

He shot her one last dubious look but obeyed, walking out to the pay phones in the hallway. She turned and jogged up the steps, glad she'd chosen her second choice, the rain boots, over her heels, no matter whether or not the forecast had turned out true or not. The boots squeaked slightly but didn't click-clack like heels would've as she crossed the stage, ducking behind the curtain.

"Alison!" she yelled, hearing something shift. "I need to talk to you!"

"About what?" the girl called, from far back in the prop storage area. Kate pushed aside the backdrop into what looked like a maze of furniture and sets and props. Some she recognized from last year, but she moved farther into the maze of set items and didn't remember as much, props from shows before her time.

"I need to talk to you about Melanie!"

"What about Melanie?" Alison's voice echoed around her. Where was that girl? It sounded like she was on all sides. Kate kept walking, weaving between tables.

"I know what you did."

She spun at the cackle that came from everywhere. "Prove it!"

"What I don't get is why," Kate continued. "She was your best friend."

"She was the perfect one, everyone loved her, she had the perfect boyfriend—and I was the understudy!"

"You murdered your best friend over a role?" she asked incredulously. "Tanner was right, when he said Melanie's killer was a monster. You're insane."

"I was just as good as she was!" Alison's shrill voice shout from right behind her, and before she could turn AB arm circled her neck, pulling her back. She choked, trying to swing the girl into a stack of props. When that didn't work, only knocking what breath she still had out of her lungs forcefully, she kicked out behind her and felt her heel collide with bone, a loud thud echoing as she caught the girl in the shin. Alison released her and she stumbled forward onto her hands and knees, coughing. She scrambled to her feet, turning to face her attacker, but Alison had snatched a heavy-looking piece of wood off a stack of props, probably left behind by a techie once he or she was done with whatever they'd been building. The girl's eyes were wide, shining with a manic glint.

"I was just as good as her," Alison protested, as if it would make any difference. "I was better. I was a million times better at being Belle than she was! Why was her life so perfect?"

_ Because she wasn't a psychopath_! Kate wanted to shout, but the wooden beam looked like it could easily give her a concussion, and she wasn't interested in getting attacked again.

"You can't tell anyone," Alison said seriously, approaching. "If I don't—then you'll tell—I can't let you!"

Kate jumped back as the crazy girl swung at her, and she didn't look like much of a baseball player, but Kate knew a homerun swing when she saw one. If that beam had connected with her head, it would've knocked it off her shoulders and out of the park. She turned and fled, running deeper into the building.

"How'd you do it?" she shouted. "You were at school on Tuesday, weren't you?"

"Free period," Alison replied. She'd already decided that Kate was going to die, Kate assumed, so what was the harm in telling her? "I was at school right when I was supposed to be and nobody thought anything of it."

"And the kill shot. Was that just a lucky shot? What did you hit her with?"

"My anatomy book," Alison chuckled, and Kate could hear her a row over as she crouched behind a rolled up carpet and a huge board with a picture of Elvis on it. She wasn't religious and she didn't believe in ghosts, but she took a moment to ask for help from a dead girl. _Please, Melanie, help me catch your killer._

Alison turned at the end of the row, saw her, and shouted gleefully; Kate stood and ran, the killer chasing after her.

"Ironic, isn't it? I started the Evanescence Club so we could be better than her. It was just a fame to everyone else, but they didn't know the real intention..."

Kate knocked over a drop, but Alison clambered over it, snapping the thin balsa wood in two with her full weight.

"And she died as one of us!"

"The blow, how'd you know where to hit...you take anatomy?" Ice ran through her at the realization. This girl had orchestrated her entire schedule for this. She had been planning her best friend's murder since at least last summer, and probably a lot longer than that too. "And you got the symbols from Christine."

"Borrowed her notes from her binder one day, drew it all out. Aren't I clever?"

"You're evil," Kate panted, still trying to knock things over to trip her up, but Alison was fast and nimble and wore sneakers and jeans, not rain boots and a skirt. "You are a nasty evil little psychopath."

Her attempts to stop Alison backfired; a table she tried to knock over caught on her ankle and she tripped, falling flat on her face. Her nose felt hot and was probably bloody already. She tried to pull her foot out from under the furniture but she heard it crack as she twisted it, and a numb sensation spread around it, more than likely broken.

Alison approached, slower now; she must've heard the bone snap and assumed correctly what had happened. She put one foot one the table and shifted her weight forward so the wood pressed down on the injury. Kate gasped out as pain shot up her leg, and Alison took the opportunity to stand on top of the piece of furniture entirely. Kate screamed, her entire leg on fire, trapped beneath the wood. Alison grinned, raising the two-by-four piece above her head, and Kate could do nothing but throw her hands over her head in what would be a futile attempt to stop it—

But the blow never came. Instead, through the blur of tears welling in her eyes, she saw someone pull Alison down forcefully, yanking the wood out of her hands and hitting her in the stomach with her own weapon. Her vision began to darken, the pain threatening to pull her under, but the furniture was lifted off of her and the person dropped beside her, cradling her head and wiping the blood streaming from her nose with their blue sleeve. There were shouts around them but she didn't know what was happening as she fell unconscious.

"I told you that you were going to get hurt!" was the last thing she heard before everything went black.

** A/N: So that's it! Now you know. You didn't think I was cliche enough to make Josh the killer, now did you? XD Don't forget to review and let me know what you think! I may have another chapter up tomorrow night, but if not this is your Christmas present…unless of course you don't celebrate it, in which case this is just another chapter. But I sure hope you enjoyed it anyways! **


	25. Chapter 25: Maddie Knows Best

**A/N: Hey everybody, it's Castle Monday so here's the penultimate chapter in celebration! I hope it's satisfying enough for you. Also, I apologize to a lovely reader, Sarahannedaisyblakeley, because this is far too late, and I hope it answers all your questions. Enjoy! :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.**

She woke up on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance. Outside police lights flashed in the school parking lot. Her ankle was tightly wrapped, though no one seemed to be in the vehicle. She propped herself up on her elbows to look for someone familiar to tell her what had happened.

"Oh hello." Her head swung around quickly, causing a pounding against her temple. She winced and brought one hand up to massage the pain away. "Sorry, I'm right here."

Rick sat on the bench of the ambulance just behind her head where she hadn't seen him. "What happened?"

"Oh, they caught her, don't worry, since you almost got yourself killed trying to stop her," he said lightly, though there was a steely undertone to his voice. "You passed out because all the blood rushed to your foot, which took care of the bloody nose, lucky for you."

"Cameras, did they find the cameras above the stage?"

"Yeah, Mr. Anthony showed up like twenty minutes ago, he told them how to get to them. How'd you know they'd be filming still?"

"I didn't," Kate admitted.

Rick dropped any pretense of his casual demeanor. "My god, Kate, were you planning on killing yourself to catch this girl?"

"She's a psychopath, I couldn't let her get away!"

"What kind of idiot engages in a game of cat-and-mouse with a psychopath? That girl was insane! I hit her with that thing and she started laughing!"

"She would've gotten away!" Kate protested.

"No she wouldn't have!" Rick snapped. "It would've been fine!"

She turned to look back outside. "So Josh..."

"They released him," Rick nodded. "Good lord, Kate, honestly though! Why?"

"I couldn't let her get away with it!"

"You are so stupid!"

"I caught her and I'm fine!"

"You are not fine, you're going to be in a cast for six weeks!"

"So? I caught her, didn't I?"

"She was going to kill you, Kate!"

"Yeah, and you stopped her, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but—"

"No buts! I'm fine!"

Rick considered her for a moment, a strange look of fury, panic, and awe on his face, before he bent over and pressed his lips to hers quickly before pulling away again.

She gaped at him. "Rick..." she breathed, the only sound she could manage through her shock.

"Yes?" he asked expectantly, no discernible expression on his face.

"Are you not dating Maddie?"

"As it turns out, not any more."

"Really? How'd that happen? Messy breakup?" she grinned, teasing arising as a defense.

"Oh, she showed up the moment she heard about this—you've been out for like half an hour or something—and—can you believe this—she walks up to where I'm sitting on the curb before they'd let me in here and goes, 'Rick, you need to kiss Kate, because you two are obviously in love with each other.'"

She pushed herself up farther. "She did not," Kate snapped.

"She's outside—yelling at Detective Harding for not arresting the right person, I think she's blaming him for you getting hurt—so you can ask her when she gets in here," Rick replied.

"But just because she said it doesn't make it true though."

Rick folded his arms and shrugged, leaning back against the side of the truck. "Does it? You tell me."

"Well, don't you like Maddie?"

"I asked you out first, if you remember. But the question was about you. Is it true for you?"

She didn't reply as the blonde appeared in the opening, flanked by two paramedics who were either carting her off to a mental ward or checking on Kate. Unfortunately it was the latter, and Maddie was allowed to talk. "Did be kiss you yet?"

"Yes, he did," Kate said, rolling her eyes as Rick gave her a look that said , 'I told you so'.

"Good," Maddie snorted. "And if you don't admit you like him, and I know you haven't, I will break your other ankle!"

The paramedics gave her alarmed looks, and she threw up her arms. "Not seriously, god! Aren't doctors supposed to be smart?"

Rick and Kate glanced at each other and laughed. Trust Maddie to alienate anyone in sight.

"What?" Maddie asked. When neither elaborated, she rolled her eyes. "You two fit every couple cliché in the book!"

"Excuse me, Kate," Detective Harding called, walking up next to Maddie. "Your parents are here to get you, and these guys said you can go."

She stood immediately, stepping gently onto her injured ankle. "Great, where are they?"

"You need crutches," Rick insisted.

"No I don't, I can walk!"

"No, ma'am, you actually do need crutches," one of the paramedics said, holding out a pair that had apparently been brought from the hospital. She scowled but took them as she stepped down.

Her parents hurried over from where they stood talking to some officers in uniforms, brows knit anxiously. "Oh my god, Kate, are you okay?" Her mom immediately began hovering over her, though she really didn't think it was necessary.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just have a broken ankle, but they said it's fine and it'll be healed in six weeks," she said, trying not to brush them away too much to hurt their feelings.

"Um, we'll leave you to it, then," Maddie said, pulling Rick away. Once they were out of earshot she snapped, "You better ask her out. Like now."

Rick panicked. "Her parents are standing right there!"

"Hey!" They both turned to look at their friend, who was yelling over at them. "Fine, okay, fine! I have to go get a cast tomorrow morning, but you want to go out tomorrow night, Rick?"

"Sure you're up for walking anywhere?" he laughed, covering his shock.

"I'm always up for anything, broken ankle or not!"

"I'll pick you up at seven then!"

She climbed into her parents' car, pushing the crutches onto the floor. "Hey Kate!" She turned back to look. Maddie yelled, "Make sure you get a blue cast!"

"Why?"

"To match your boyfriend's eyes!"

Kate snorted and waved, disappearing into the car.

"So when are you proposing?" Maddie asked, smirking and nudging him with her elbow.

"You do realize we're sophomores in high school, right?" he replied, raising an eyebrow

Maddie grinned, and maybe it was his imagination but she looked a little bit evil. "You're turning sixteen next week. There's always Vegas."

**A/N: Well that's it! That's the end of the story itself...there's still the epilogue though, so look out for that. And since everyone's seen it now, most likely, how about that episode? :)  
**


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